Two Spiders on a Web (MCU Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen Crossover)
- Thread starter Eratas123
- Start date
- Modern Crossover Superhero
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Honestly, I completely froze about it, but I had a couple of thoughts and talking to a friend helped to hash out some things.
Like, (status) bodyguard or mercenary work is really low bar for our Spiders. Being a honest to god superhero for hire is a strange tightrope walking between charity and profit.
What she and Petey might keep an eye on are suspicious suggestions to check out this or that place, where might be gun stashes, drug labs, other illegal stuff, etc. Because it might be someone like Kingpin, manipulating them to get rid of their opposition. They might get a couple of thugs off the streets, but somebody untouchable would benefit even more for their money...
As I've said, there might be a promotional stuff. It might range from commertial, to charity and politics. Yes, a charity might invite superhero for their event and benefit despite spending money on superhero being there.
There is a huge risk of accidentally DDoSing their web-site by growing mountain of small borderline invalid requests. As long as there is no entry gate keeping, expect people willing to pay to punish their bullies, owners, who lost their pets, people who have something stolen from them or got robbed, people asking really inappropriate, evil things. Betty(?) might get overwhelmed soon by all of that and start suggesting a paid manager/operator to dig through all of that.
You might be on point about people to be willing to pay to investigate strange happenings (like mystery robberies, she just uncovered), that can't merit a police investigation or simply requests to patrol their neibourhood as a night watch, willing to compensate relative distance of their home for the safety boost. Spider-people might get spread thinner, as a result of that, but would get a lot more of sightings and publicity (for bad or worse). On the opposite side, there might be some competition between 'hoods. One superhero isn't enough. Two aren't enough. But still being able to know, that the skies are covered by some (kinda) friendly neibourhood arthropods is a nice feeling, so a jealousy might occur.
Government and other entities may take a note of this site quite fast and would probably wish to establish more permanent arrangement. Like, for example, you know how in all those procedurals they have police consultants. I can imagine, Emergency services willing to spend some coin to get Spider-Gwen on speed dial. Like, seriously, she's superstrong and durable.
Do you remember the boat scene is Spider Man: Homecoming. It was kinda his fault and he did make a situation from bad to worse and it had to be Tony to fix everything but - it was still amazing job with physics and strength. Buildings and boats don't crash like that every day, but they burn and crash from burning quite often. There are fires, floods, collapses, entrapments. Within a huge city the impact of significantly adaptable, mobile, agile, light, durable and superstrong bunch of levers and wires can't overstated. Our equipment is limited, expensive and fallible in a way Spider-people are not. And they have danger sense on top. Imagine all of that proprely guided and networked to the best possible outcome (of saving people from disaters), rather than alone and on a fly.
Like, (status) bodyguard or mercenary work is really low bar for our Spiders. Being a honest to god superhero for hire is a strange tightrope walking between charity and profit.
What she and Petey might keep an eye on are suspicious suggestions to check out this or that place, where might be gun stashes, drug labs, other illegal stuff, etc. Because it might be someone like Kingpin, manipulating them to get rid of their opposition. They might get a couple of thugs off the streets, but somebody untouchable would benefit even more for their money...
As I've said, there might be a promotional stuff. It might range from commertial, to charity and politics. Yes, a charity might invite superhero for their event and benefit despite spending money on superhero being there.
There is a huge risk of accidentally DDoSing their web-site by growing mountain of small borderline invalid requests. As long as there is no entry gate keeping, expect people willing to pay to punish their bullies, owners, who lost their pets, people who have something stolen from them or got robbed, people asking really inappropriate, evil things. Betty(?) might get overwhelmed soon by all of that and start suggesting a paid manager/operator to dig through all of that.
You might be on point about people to be willing to pay to investigate strange happenings (like mystery robberies, she just uncovered), that can't merit a police investigation or simply requests to patrol their neibourhood as a night watch, willing to compensate relative distance of their home for the safety boost. Spider-people might get spread thinner, as a result of that, but would get a lot more of sightings and publicity (for bad or worse). On the opposite side, there might be some competition between 'hoods. One superhero isn't enough. Two aren't enough. But still being able to know, that the skies are covered by some (kinda) friendly neibourhood arthropods is a nice feeling, so a jealousy might occur.
Government and other entities may take a note of this site quite fast and would probably wish to establish more permanent arrangement. Like, for example, you know how in all those procedurals they have police consultants. I can imagine, Emergency services willing to spend some coin to get Spider-Gwen on speed dial. Like, seriously, she's superstrong and durable.
Do you remember the boat scene is Spider Man: Homecoming. It was kinda his fault and he did make a situation from bad to worse and it had to be Tony to fix everything but - it was still amazing job with physics and strength. Buildings and boats don't crash like that every day, but they burn and crash from burning quite often. There are fires, floods, collapses, entrapments. Within a huge city the impact of significantly adaptable, mobile, agile, light, durable and superstrong bunch of levers and wires can't overstated. Our equipment is limited, expensive and fallible in a way Spider-people are not. And they have danger sense on top. Imagine all of that proprely guided and networked to the best possible outcome (of saving people from disaters), rather than alone and on a fly.
Last edited:
The Hero for Hire business isn't meant to be a big thing. Similar to canon, Gwen considers it a side gig to her real hero work. Bodyguarding may be low bar work, but it keeps a roof over her head and gets them money for food. That's all she needs it to be.
To be fair, that applies to anything they really do. Stopping one crime lord means another one somewhere else profits; you can't avoid this. A better reason to not take those jobs would be legality. Bodyguarding they can feasibly justify, but saying 'someone hired me to illegally break and enter this building' really wouldn't fly when the police start asking questions.
I did consider charity works, but in those cases Gwen would do it for free and refuse payment if offered. It's one thing to guard some rich guy or a tourist, but she won't price gouge when it comes to cancer funding.
This is a legitimate worry, though. Gwen even mentioned in the chapter that she was afraid to becoming a thug for hire who was used as an attack dog for someone who got bullied. However, looking for lost pets and stolen stuff is legitimate, yes? Gwen's first inspiration for the HFH gig was when she helped a woman find her stolen purse/apartment keys.
As for asking inappropriate, evil questions, how would that be a worry? The site only allows hiring for jobs so if someone starts asking questions like Gwen's measurements then they could presumably just say that's not a job and screen them. If someone tries to ask those questions on the job then Gwen and/or Peter could refuse to answer and tell them to take their money back if that's not good enough. They're there to perform jobs, not entertain questions.
You have to remember that in this world heroes are very rare. Gwen seems to be the only hero running around New York in Earth-65 canon - Wasp is retired, She-Hulk is non-powered, Iron Man is a CEO who owns coffee chops and PMCs, and Captain America is more an international SHIELD agent than anything else. The Spider-Women crossover also confirms the Avengers don't exist. There are other powered people like Shadowcat, but she works as a mercenary.
This means that neighborhoods trying to pull escalation really wouldn't work when there are literally two heroes available and no one else. Though, I could see the issue that rich neighborhoods continously just hire Gwen for patrol nightly and leave poorer neighborhoods flapping in the breeze. However, this really shouldn't be an issue either - like Gwen said she patrols for free through the entire city on her personal time, so it's not like she's only heroing for the people who pay.
Problem is legality. Gwen's still technically a vigilante and since she refused the Suicide Squad offer she's alone with only Cap's fondness acting as a small shield. It's the same reason Spider-Man couldn't just go tot he Mayor's office and ask for a weekly stipend for all his heroing. Private companies can hire her, but not the government.
Agreed, but again this would take months if not years to properly iron out given that Gwen's status is a debated topic in-universe. That and if there are fires, floods, collapses and other disasters Gwen and Peter would help regardless as soon as they hear about it.
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Doesn't help that they still might contact her through that medium, though. And knowing, that multiple entities might compete for her time...
Hm. I'm curious what else she might be promoting, which isn't a complete shill, though.
Somehow, I don't find this statement believable, even with all the web slinging. But we can write that off as comic book time physics, I guess.
It might be dozens of potentially saved lives to late. They are one "as fast they hear it" emergency way from that kind of arrangement.
Um. What's being a posible vigilante has to do with working as an emergency responder?
What stops state of NY to pass laws in order to make that happen? There would probably some bureaucracy, examination and safety training they might want her to to overcome, but overall hardship of it would really depend on how much they want her.
And I tell you - they really, really want her there.
Though, they might try to push her into dropping her almost-but-ignored-vigilante work.
You know, the fact that she is a unique case might be a blessing in a disguise, as there are not many supers to make policies for, government might weigh pros in cons in order to arrange something, that would satisfy their needs, voters opinions and her heroic tendencies in order to make law bubble around her legal superhero identity. The lack of policies and laws in place would mean the risk of collusion and corruption, but on the other hand it allows more easily adaptable oversight. If she misbehaves, they give Gwen shorter stick and angrier representative. If she pleases them, some things might be overlooked or vafored in her case.
If the relationship will be fruitful, they'll arrange something more permanent in time with her lawyers.
In anyway, don't unterrestimate government realizing how much of an asset she is and their ability to find ways to utilize her and incentivize cooperation. It might be bad, it might be good. But eithr way, just ignoring her even with Cap's shielding presense isn't really an option.
Last edited:
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sigh. That needs typo checking...
All of that needs either laws or somebody closing their eyes.
Ever heard of quid pro quo?
I heard the US government can make the best fake US IDs...
The problem is that, there is no guarantee, whether Gwen'll be greeted by someone competent, incompetent or evil..
On one hand, hiding an illegal interuniversal alien is probably a crime. On the other hand it might be interpreted as helping a refugee from another universe doing charity work for an multiversal peacekeeping force.
All of that needs either laws or somebody closing their eyes.
Ever heard of quid pro quo?
I heard the US government can make the best fake US IDs...
The problem is that, there is no guarantee, whether Gwen'll be greeted by someone competent, incompetent or evil..
Gwen would support any charity that she sees as a decent cause whether it be cancer funding to endangered wildlife shelters. Though, she'd really only attend if she has good reason to believe her presence would up the funding. If Tony Stark and Norman Osborn are donating regardless then she wouldn't think she needs to be there.
It's not like she takes jobs every day. Her primary reasoning for the HFH gig is rent money, after all, so if she sees no jobs that are critical or worrisome she'll probably just stick to free hero work. What are people gonna do, complain that she can't be everywhere at once? ...Okay yes they'd do that, but that's really not Gwen or Peter's problem.
Um...because you don't turn criminals into firefighters and rescue workers, and a vigilante is a criminal? Also, passing laws is HARD. Civil War was mocked for many reasons, but one of them was just quick the SHRA was passed. At minimum it would take MONTHS for that bill to take effect, and that's with bullrushing and cutting through the metric ton of red tape. The government specifically making a law for one individual, even someone of Gwen's power level, is pretty low on the totem pole. Unless she gets Superman level abilities she really isn't considered a giant priority when there are literal hundreds of backlogged bills that are equally worth the government's time and funding.
Problem is making things official. Officially there's no Superhuman law and making such would take months, if not years. Now, a backdoor agreement could work, but that's if Gwen is willing to accept that straight out given how badly she got screwed when she tried to play straight and the people put her in jail purely because they were scared of her powers, not because if she was innocent or not. That and this leads to the oh so obvious 'government uses her as an attack dog' paranoia unless they really sell that they just want her as a rescue worker. The HFH gig allows her to pick her jobs. A government contract does not.
Given that this is the marvel universe: 50% chance they're evil, 45% chance they're incompetent, 4% chance they're well meaning but incompetent, and 1% chance they're both well meaning and competent. The problem is Earth-65 is busted and filled with people suffering an extreme case of tall poppy syndrome - a large chunk of Gwen's villains are obsessed with her because of her powers and nothing else. She did nothing to spite them before they came after her.
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That's because Superman warps the perspective.
Don't undersell Gwen. And I remind you, Peter held two parts of the ferry boat together for some time with webs and muscle strength. It's not about them getting Superman powers, they're already this world's Super-Gwen and Super-Peter.
Last edited:
Chapter 13 - Get a Room
Managed this in a day due to a lull at work. It's somewhat shorter than my usual work, but I figure it work out since I updated another fic a day ago. I'll probably wait for the new Spider-Gwen to come out on the 13th so I can get a better idea on some stuff.
Chapter 13: Get a Room
A couple of weeks passed and they'd settled into a routine. Every day they'd check over the job listing and see what was reasonable. They mostly screened the pointless ones like those blatantly asking for dates or people who wanted to pay for a week straight of 12 hour work a day, though they did take a few for laughs. One guy wanted them at his comic shop for a couple of hours just to pose and ask questions, which was harmless and fun enough.
There were a few requests that Gwen legitimately wasn't sure if she was supposed to take it seriously or not. One guy wanted to hire her for a strip routine (blocked) and another was an old lady old enough to be her grandma who wanted to set her up with 'her dashing father' (gross, and also blocked). Peter seemed to find the latter funny, though much less so after she reminded him of Patsy Walker and their 'date'.
And then came the entitled ones.
She knew they'd come sooner or later, but people asking for her to beat up people they didn't like for free made her almost trip when she saw it. Sure, she wasn't going to be a rent-a-thug even if they paid her, but it was still a jolt. Probably didn't help that trying to explain that she was not, in fact, an attack dog led to numerous complaints about
"Woah, look at this one." Betty pointed at the laptop screen. They were at the couch with Betty at the center, Gwen to her left and Peter to her right. It was a morning tradition at this point, "1 star rating. This so-called 'Superhero' is just a money grubbing- woah, not gonna say that word cause it's not nice." Betty rolled her eyes and deleted said word, "Is just a money grubbing bad word who only helps those who can pay for it. Why do people call her a hero again?"
"Wasn't that the guy who demanded you beat up some hobos cause they were dirty?" Peter asked.
"Yep. When I told him I wasn't gonna do that he went ballistic and said they were 'dirtying his neighborhood' and that I had to do it. Guess with a username like 'The Elite' you really can't expect much." Gwen rolled her eyes. She might've understood if said hobos attacked him or something, but no. Apparently his sensitive widdle eyes just couldn't take seeing someone 'so disgusting' in his neighborhood. Jerk.
"Here's another goodie." Betty clicked on the link, "This guy's offering you to work at his pizzeria. No upfront price and salary's below minimum wage, cause 'you don't need that much money anyway since you can just swing everywhere'. Yeesh, we really need to start getting a filter on these guys." She deleted the request.
"I could whip something up, but we're always so busy..." Peter mumbled. That was true - if they weren't taking jobs then they were swinging around the city going from one crime to the next. Shadowcat still hadn't contacted them again, so she just assumed that S.H.I.E.L.D was taking their sweet time interrogating that Tinkerer guy. Impostor Goblin hadn't shown up at all, so she was fine with waiting.
Most of her work tended to be bodyguarding or searching for missing stuff, which was fine with her. A lot of the time she didn't even need to be that close. One time a bank actually hired her to help guard an armored car after they got a threat from the (new) Sinister Six about how they were gonna jack it. Worked out pretty well: robbery was foiled, all four (they weren't even trying to be accurate at that point) of the Six were in prison and she got a good review.
Peter was better at publicity. Comic shops, rides and even a visit to a children's hospital (that one he refused payment on). She joined him on a few of the latter ones, and she had to admit it was nice seeing those kids' faces light up when they saw them was really nice. She was still kinda skeevy on the site, but at least it allowed groups like Make a Wish to contact them easier.
Peter quit his job at the Dollar Dog and she decided to take a break from college, at least for a bit. It was nice, not having to worry about Professor Warren staring at her in class or her classmates trying to pull favors from 'Spider-Gwen'. Her dad was kinda put off at first, though when he saw the site he'd accepted it. Helped that she assured him the break was temporary. She wasn't planning to make this a career or anything.
"Hey, what's that one?" Peter pointed to a post and Betty clicked it.
Right then and there she should've known it was trouble. It had all the signs - 50 dollars for 2 hours to bodyguard two kids (not even close to enough) and, of course, a well-rehearsed sob story of being a single mother who was struggling to pay the bills. She knew she shouldn't have accepted - she'd seen way too many requests like this elsewhere and they never ended well. Maybe it was because she knew from her dad how hard being a single parent was, or maybe it was cause she'd been riding high on those kids' smiles from yesterday, but she accepted the job and even did it gratis.
Big mistake.
Gwen landed in front of the two story house (so much for struggling...) and rang the doorbell. Almost immediately a pitbull came charging at the door barking, "Woah, boy! I'm a friend!" She held up both hands and stepped back to avoid getting slobber on her costume.
The dog kept barking till eventually a woman stepped out and whistled. She was an older woman, probably early to mid 40's, and slightly heavyset with long brown hair tied up in a bun. Her clothes really didn't scream 'struggling single mom' unless you thought those sitcoms were really accurate, "Finally! You're late!" she cried out.
"Sorry about that, there was-"
"I don't care. Just get inside before they get rowdy." She practically stormed out like Gwen had personally spit on her cornflakes.
That should've been her one and only warning to get the hell out of there, especially since it wasn't like she was getting paid for this, but she shouldered on. Maybe the kids would be different.
Warning sign two: the woman lied about her kid's age.
She was explicitly told she'd be guarding (read: babysitting) a 5 and 7 year old. The man, who looked to be about 20, looked way too old to be 7 and way too young to be the so-called deadbeat father, "Hey, good lookin." He leered at her. Gwen cringed, "Took your sweet time, didn't ya?'
"Yeah...there was a crime on the way." Guy stealing an old lady's purse. Couldn't beat the classics, "So...where are the kids?"
"You're lookin' at im, beautiful." Could he just...stop? Please? "My little bro's upstairs playin' one of his games game." As if on cue, a very loud 'motherfucker!' came from the top of the stairs. That didn't sound like a kid either.
"Right, uh...how old are you two?"
"I'm 21, he's 16. Name's Alex, by the way."
"Right...well, I was told I'd be watching a couple of kids. 5 and 7 year old. Ring any bells?"
"Those are my cousins. They left a couple days ago."
"Huh, so I guess that means you don't really need me here."
"You took the job, doll. Two hours."
He leaned forward with that same grin. She slipped past him to the living room. Yeah, she was definitely just gonna ignore that, "Look, let's just get through this easy. I'm gonna ignore the fact that your mom lied to me and just finish the two hours because I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. So can we please-"
He slapped her ass.
She turned around and just stared at him. A part of her expected him to at least look sheepish, but he was the very picture of confidence, "Been wantin' to do that since you came in." He whistled briefly, "Now, what else are you hidin' under that hood-"
She webbed his mouth shut. His eyes widened and she pushed past him back to the entrance. He screamed something from behind her, but she didn't care. That was what she got for trying to do something good.
She got a 1 star review when she got back.
She was going to kill Betty when she got out of here.
The next job was recommended by her. 2000 dollars for half a day from a girl who 'wanted her powers for a day.' They all thought that it was just a fancy way of saying she needed a bodyguard.
Boy, were they wrong.
"What do you mean you can't give them to me?!" The girl was a couple of years younger than her, maybe 17 or 18, with dark blonde hair and tan skin. That should've been a giant warning sign already - 2000 dollars from a teenager without any parent in sight? Way too suspicious, "I told you I wanted your powers so give them to me! I paid for them!"
"You said you just needed me to stick around for 4 hours!" People were looking at them now, but she didn't care. She was getting tired of this BS, "What even made you think that I could give you powers?!"
"Well you weren't born with em, so you must've gotten them at some point, so you can give them to me for a bit!" she said, looking at Gwen like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Come on, just give it! I promise I'll give them back!" She stamped her foot.
"Look, lady, even if I wanted to I couldn't! It doesn't work that way!" The spider was dead - she'd slapped it to the floor herself years ago. Gwen was almost tempted to make a barb about Ms. Carla King looking around to see if she could eat it and maybe she'd get lucky, but she reined it in, "I'm sorry if this isn't what you're looking for, so just take your money back and-"
"Ugh, this is so unfair!" She stamped her foot again, "You don't even deserve those powers, so just give em to me!" Was this girl deaf or just dumb? "You're not even supposed to be out here! You should still be in prison for killing that giant lizard!"
It took everything Gwen had to not sock the girl in her smug, smarmy face. Instead she took a deep breath, threw her cash on the ground and swung away without another word. King shouted after her about being selfish and entitled, but Gwen blocked her out. She was tired. In two jobs flat any and all goodwill she had about the site had evaporated and now she wanted nothing more than to close it down to avoid more entitled pricks.
Her bad mood lessened slightly when she got a text from Peter, "At the usual place." She smiled. It was their thing ever since they started - every couple of days they'd meet up at the place where they got pizza and pig out while complaining about the terribad jobs they took. Usually it was just something slight like someone just wanting a few minutes overtime. Not like this.
There were burgers and shakes waiting for her. Her mouth curled up in a smile and she sat next to him, retracting her mask as she did, "Bad day?" He asked, a sympathetic look on his face. They were high up enough that he didn't have to worry about anyone seeing them.
"You dunno the half of it." She unwrapped the burger and took a generous bite, "This chick thought I could give her my powers for a day like it's a fucking bike or something. Tried to tell her that I couldn't and she just explodes, whining that 'she paid for it' and that 'I don't even deserve them'," she said, shifting her voice to a more mocking tone, "Just threw her cash away and left. Wanted to punch her in the face too, but being an ass isn't actually a crime."
She wasn't going to mention the crack about Peter. Better if she didn't bring it up.
"I've seen you save dozens of people. If anyone deserves it, it's you." She blushed slightly. Getting praised so openly was still a bit of a new thing for her, "What about the job yesterday? You just crashed back home and didn't want to talk."
Home...he'd started calling it that she didn't even know how long ago. Gwen doubted he even noticed, but it was...nice. She figured that the longer he stayed here the more he'd just wanna leave. He did still wanna go back, of course, but this wasn't the prison she thought it'd be for him.
They spent the next hour just talking about whatever came to mind. She was glad to hear that Peter's jobs went better than hers, though there was a dad who wanted him to date her daughter, which he very gracefully refused, "This is fun," Peter said, "I was actually thinking about, like, making a facebook back home so people could contact Spider-Man, but I never got around to it."
"Probably for the best. People are assholes on the net." They were outside of it too, but it was easier hiding behind a mask, "...Hey, when you get back and kick that big purple dude's ass, promise you'll keep contact, okay? I...like these hangouts we have."
"Y-Yeah, me too." She tried not to think about the red on his cheeks, "Listen, I was...uh, gonna go hang out with the other Spider guys for a bit, actually. Wanna come with?"
"Oh, uh, I'll catch up. I...actually have someone I wanna talk to."
They said their goodbyes and Gwen activated her portal watch as soon as he was out of sight. Peter just gave her an idea.
She couldn't talk to many people about her and Peter's...thing. Betty would go crazy, Glory would be overprotective and MJ...well, she didn't know what the redhead would do, but she didn't want to give her any ammo against her. She couldn't talk to Mayday, Jess or Cindy either - Mayday would've been grossed out, Jess was on vacay and Cindy...well, ten years in a bunker made Gwen not so confident in asking for relationship(?) advice.
So why not ask herself?
She found two of her and Peni in their own little group at the 'common room'. Ballerina Gwen (she was bad with names, sue her) looked up and waved her over, "Oh, hey, been a while since you went here." She was sitting next to the Spider-Gwen with a snake on her shoulder while Peni stood up on the chair. The girl was unbelievably short.
"Yeah, been kinda busy." She took one of the chairs and stared at the second Gwen. She was the one talking to the guy with the pistols, "Don't think we've met. I'm Gwen Stacy." She stuck her hand out and grinned.
"What a coincidence, me too." Mirror Gwen grinned back and shook her hand. They looked almost identical to one another, age and all, "Oh, and this is Webster." She gestured to the baby snake thing.
"Hello."
"Hey." Gwen didn't bother freaking out; she'd seen way weirder at this point, "So...I need some advice." She thought she'd just ask herself, but she didn't mind Peni being there. The more the merrier.
"Please tell me it's not about Matt Murderdock?" Mirror Gwen groaned.
"What, that guy? Nah, I beat him like a year ago." Other Gwen seemed honestly surprised at that, "It's nothing heavy, I promise. I just...I guess I need relationship advice?"
"Ooh, girl talk!" Peni cheered and sat down on the chair, legs swinging idly. The spider on her shoulder raised its head in a weirdly adorable way, "I never have these back home! No one wants to talk to the girl with the spider on her shoulder! Tell us everything!"
"Indoor voice, Peni," Ballerina Gwen chided lightly, "Anyway, I'm not really sure I'm the best for this. I'm not really good at this kind of stuff."
"What about Miles~?" Peni said, dragging the name out teasingly.
"Wh-What about him? We're just friends." Ballerina Gwen blushed. It was an odd look, seeing it on a younger her.
"Yeah, and all the holding hands and promising to hang out just the two of you? Totally just platonic there." Mirror Gwen snorted. The snake tilted its head to the side, "I dunno why you're denying it. You two are cute together."
"I'm not denying anything cause we're just friends!" Yeah...she knew herself enough when she was talking a load of BS, "A-Anyway, this isn't about me! It's about her!"
"Technically three of us here are Gwen, so that could really go anywhere," Mirror Gwen said.
"Don't be a smartass," Ballerina Gwen said. Her tone had leveled back into something confident again, "So, seriously, what's your deal? You said you needed help?"
"Right, well..." Gwen wrung her hands together nervously, "Um...I told her," she gestured to the youngest Gwen, "About my newest housemate."
"Yeah, what about-" BG paused, "Wait, are you two-"
"No...well, maybe?" Gwen groaned, "I...I don't know. We've kissed a couple of times, but the first was kind of a heat of the moment thing and the second one was cause the mood was really good and-"
"Alright, alright, slow down!" BG raised a hand to cut her off, "Let's start from the beginning one last time."
So she told them everything. Meeting Peter all those weeks ago, all the crap they had to deal with, that warehouse explosion...everything. Peni seemed enamored, eyes wide and honest to god squealing when she told them about the kiss.
"Ooh, it's like those romance stories my mom and I used to watch!" Gwen almost turned away from the sheer brightness of Peni's smile, "Speaking of, I should go and tell dad- uh, Benjamin about those!"
"...Did you just call Ben dad?" BG raised an eyebrow and Gwen could already see the grin forming at the realization she had some leverage over the other girl.
"No, I didn't!"
"Oh, I definitely heard that!" BG's grin was full force now "I can't wait to tell the others about this!"
"N-No, don't! He'll freak out!" The spider chomped its mandibles to match its owners panic.
"Guys, I think we're getting off track," MG said, "Alright, so you and Peter - really need to start labeling these guys - made out and you're not really sure what you're supposed to do now. That about sum it up?"
"I guess so..." It sounded so petty when she said it like that, "I just...I've never dated before. Never. I got my powers when I was 15 and after that I was just too busy to even think about going on dates or anything." Then there was the year of prison, which she didn't even want to think about. Thankfully no one tried to get fresh in the showers.
...Though, that was mostly cause they were busy beating the crap out of her.
"A lot of us Spiders don't get to date much for obvious reasons," MG said, "Let's go back a bit. Is there a reason you don't wanna date him?"
"Two main ones come to mind." Gwen let out a slow breath, "He's kinda trapped in my place now and his home's not in the best shape. I'm not sure if having that hanging over our heads if we try anything's a good idea. That and when we fix whatever's happening back in his place he's gonna want to go home."
"Dimensional travel's pretty simple now that we've improved the transporters," Peni said, "Isn't it just like taking a bus to see someone?"
"Maybe? I dunno, I've never dated anyone outside my own universe before." No, she didn't count that kiss with Miles. That was another heat of the moment thing and he was dating someone else from his own universe now, "Still, you know how busy we can all be. MJ tried the long distance thing and it didn't work out for her, and she doesn't even have Spider powers. What chance do I got?"
"It...sounds like you're doubting yourself more than any kind of relationship," BG said slowly.
"Am I?"
"Sounds like it," MG clapped her shoulder reassuringly, "Hey, I know what it's like, trust me. Back home me and Pete...well, did not have an easy go of it. Lot of arguments, lot of just...blowing up at each other. Sometimes I thought it would've been better if we just stayed away." She smiled bitterly, "But...we didn't, and I'm not saying it's perfect or anything, but I'm still glad I didn't just give up and think 'better not'."
"Wait, are you talking about the guy who had guns out before?" BG asked.
"Yeah...that's something we're dealing with."
"And you think that it's worth it?" Gwen asked hopefully.
MG nodded, "Yeah. Better to try, right? I mean...getting a bit personal here, but all three of us were blamed for something we didn't do." They all had varying expressions of discomfort while Peni put a small hand on BG's shoulder, "I'm guessing all three of us felt like throwing the suit into the harbor, but we didn't. We tried and tried and tried. If you can do that, why can't you just try with this?"
"Because I don't wanna lose him," Gwen said, voice louder than she intended, "Being Spider-Woman was my choice and it was just me. What if...What if we try and it doesn't work? Can we just...pretend that it's not going to be awkward?"
Peni was the one to break the silence that followed, "Being Spider-Woman wasn't just about you." Gwen met the younger girl's eyes, "If you got hurt or caught or killed, then your friends and family would've had to deal with it. You would've left them behind..." She tightened her hold on her backpack straps, "Maybe I'm too young for this stuff, but I think you should give it a go. Real friends won't abandon each other even if it gets messed up."
"I'm with Peni," BG said, "Why not give it a shot? I mean, Lord knows we need to take whatever we can get."
"Does that mean you're finally gonna ask out Miles?" Peni asked. Her bright smile returned in full force.
"Uh, this is about her, not me- and I swear to god if you make another comment about the three of us being the same I will hurt you." BG gave MG a halfhearted glare while the older Gwen put her hands up in amused surrender.
"Huh...thanks, that actually helps a lot." Gwen smiled, "I...I guess I should talk to Peter."
"Good luck. I know from experience that dating another Spider isn't easy," MG said. Gwen felt sympathetic, though maybe that was cause they looked like twins, "Speaking of which, I think I overheard Spider-Ham saying they were going to give someone love advice. Do you think it's the same Peter you're talking about?"
"Uh...no. I mean, what are the chances?"
"So...I just ask her out?"
Ham nodded enthusiastically while Noir sighed nearby. He'd called them a day ago to ask for advice, though only Spider-Ham really seemed into the idea. Noir mostly just disapproved in the background while UK seemed somewhat perturbed at Ham's gusto.
"Yep! Trust me, kid, being willing to take charge is an attractive trait." Ham nodded confidently, "So here's what you do. You get the setting just right - I recommend a good, brightly colored room with just a hint of trumpet music in the background. After that you give her all the signs. I'm talking hearts in your eyes, a little floatin' and maybe even an 'awooga!' here or there."
"Uh...I can't do any of that." Maybe the awooga, but something told him Gwen wouldn't be a fan.
"Huh...oh, yeah, I forgot about that." Spider-Ham visibly (and literally) deflated, "So...what can you do?"
"This is a waste of time." Noir threw his cigarette to the ground and stomped it flat, "I don't get the point of this. I thought you wanted to go home? That was the entire point of us making those trips into that place where people got turned to dust." Peter winced. The blunt reminder felt like a punch to the face, "Now you're telling me you want to, what, stay here?"
"No..." Peter brought a hand through his hair nervously, "But I mean, they're not mutually exclusive, right? Why can't I date Gwen and go back?"
"Seems like hassle to me." Noir scoffed.
"We're not here to pass judgement, Peter," Spider-UK said, "I'd also like to remind you that cross-dimensional relationships are, in fact, a possibility. My and Lady Reilly's courtship is quite healthy." Peter smiled. He appreciated the help...even if Billy was dating a version of his aunt.
"Sure, but you've basically moved into her world when you're not over at the base. The kid ain't the same." Noir shook his head, "But fine, guessing reason ain't on the agenda today, so let's help the kid with his crush."
"So...do you have any advice, Noir?" Peter asked hesitantly.
"I'm old fashioned. I'd suggest you ask her out to a hootenanny, but I doubt you have those around here." Considering he didn't even know what that was, he was guessing no, "Why don't you just ask her out, then? No messing around. Stacy doesn't seem like the type to be into classic romance so just do what's fun for both of you and see where it goes."
"Wow...I can see your heart growing three sizes there, Noir," Ham said. Noir scowled at him, "Oops, nevermind, it's shrinking back to pea size. It was nice while it lasted."
"Don't make me grill you over the file, porky."
"You wanna try, tall, black and white and broody? I'm right here."
"Please, let's not fight. We're here for Spider-Man's sake." Spider-UK got between them with a disarming smile, "My advice for your would be to simply do what comes naturally. Courtship rituals aren't a universal standard and what one might find charming another might find repulsive. If you're reasonably certain of Ms. Stacy's feelings then let it come naturally."
"That's what I'm worried about." Peter stepped down from the vent roof, "I'm...I'm pretty sure we both like each other, but it feels like there's something like a wall. Every time I think about talking about it it's like my tongue bloats up and I can't say anything. Betty's kinda noticed it too. Sometimes she talks to me or Gwen what the deal is and we can't answer."
"Wait, something I'm confused about. I thought you liked Mary Jane Watson?" Noir asked.
"I did. I mean, I do; she's a good friend." She just didn't want anything more than that. Which he was totally cool with, by the way. She was cool, he was cool, they were all cool.
"Huh...you move on fast." This time it felt like a punch in the gut.
"Ah, leave the kid alone! We can't all be old fashioned and pining like you!" Spider-Ham said, "He tried dating her, it didn't work out and he's moving on. What's the big deal?"
"You know, every time you talk I feel like I'm hearing nails on a chalkboard."
"And I think that's our cue to leave!" UK said in a rush, "Best of luck to you, Mr. Parker. Don't hesitate to call on us for aid should you need it."
"Yeah, sure..." Peter watched them leave through a portal and put on his mask again, "That wasn't helpful at all."
"I don't know. I think Spider-Ham's advice has merit," Karen chimed in his ear, "Why didn't you ask me for advice, Peter? I was hurt."
"Don't start, Karen." He sighed and swung back home. Gwen was probably back by now.
"It's a legitimate question."
"Cause I knew what you'd say. You'd just tell me that I should go in there, take off my mask and kiss Gwen right in the lips. Right?"
"I would've also suggested doing it upside down-"
"Karen." He used a water tower as a spring, "Look, this isn't as simple as just asking someone out on a date, alright? She's...Gwen is..." Amazing, brave, confident, daring...he could probably go through the entire alphabet, "I just don't wanna mess this up, okay? I owe her a lot and if we screw this up then..." Then he might lose her even as a friend. He couldn't take that.
"You need to be more confident, Peter. You're a sweet and brave young man but you keep putting yourself down. Gwen cares about you and you care about her. There's no shame in it."
"I'm not ashamed, I'm just..." He paused and forced himself to continue, "I'm scared. I know it's dumb. I mean, I went to space with Mr. Stark and fought aliens, but this...it's so hard, Karen."
"I understand. Just do what you think is best, Peter."
She didn't say anything the entire trip back. Peter opened the window to Gwen's place and arrived at the living room just when the blue portal opened and Gwen stepped out. The two of them stared at each other awkwardly, "Uh...hey," Peter pulled off his mask. He probably looked bad, windswept and sweaty and all, "You, uh, went to Loomworld?"
"Yeah, talked to some friends." She kicked at the ground lightly, "How...How was chatting with the guys?"
"Oh, it was cool. Just...talking. Guy stuff, you know..."
"Yeah- I mean, same thing. Girl stuff, spider stuff..."
"I know-"
"Oh for god's sake, get a room, you two!"
Both of them jumped and turned to the couch to find an irate Betty with Murderface on her lap. Both of them were glaring at the pair, "Betty?! What the fuck, how long have you been there?!" Gwen screamed, a hand to her chest.
"From the start of time," she said flatly, "Not the point. Could you just..do something about this thing you guys have? Cause I've been the third wheel for two weeks now and it's getting pretty old. I'm literally choking on the sexual tension in the air."
"Sexual tension?" Peter's entire face turned red.
"I must agree with Ms. Brant, Peter. It is rather palpable," Karen piped up in speaker mode, "Might I suggest we leave and let the pair sort it out, Ms. Brant?"
"My pleasure."
Betty pushed them both into the (rather small) bedroom, took Karen from his hands and locked the door behind them. It was a hollow threat - both of them were more than strong enough to break the door down with their pinky - but the message was clear. They weren't getting out till they sorted this...thing.
He and Gwen just...looked at each other. The silence stretched on for seconds and eventually Peter thought that he'd just scream to block it all out
And then Gwen started laughing.
It was soft at first, more giggles than anything, and then it belted on to full out laughter. Peter stared at her like she'd gone insane before he smiled and started laughing with her. It was so stupid. After everything that happened, why was he so scared of the woman in front of him? He knew Gwen. Even if he messed up she wouldn't just cut off contact, not like...like...
Why did he think of Liz? It wasn't his fault she had to move away or that Mr. Toomes was in prison. He made the choice to steal, to put people in danger. He tried to give him a chance and he squandered it. He shouldn't have felt guilty.
"That's Betty for you, I guess," Gwen said, slightly breathless, "Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels like an idiot?"'
"No, no. I definitely feel like an idiot too."
"Heh...good."
They kissed again. This time there was no hesitation or being scared of what came after.
Peter woke up at the bed hours later, "Gwen?" There was a sticky note taped to the chest of his costume. He picked up and smiled at the letters, 'Had to check on dad. Let's go out tomorrow. Goodnight.'
He stood up and stretched his stiff limbs before leaving the (now-unlocked) room. Betty was asleep on the couch and Peter took the mask back from her hands, "Was it resolved, Peter?" Karen sounded very smug right now.
"Yeah, I think so. We're...going on a date tomorrow." He looked out the window. It was night out, but he could do with some patrolling.
It didn't take long for him to find something worth stopping for, "Are those...ninjas?" He landed on the pole and Karen zoomed in. Yep, those were definitely ninjas with katanas. He counted at least four of them and they were surrounding a bleeding guy in a suit and a walking cane. Peter's eyes narrowed. What kind of people beat up on a blind guy?
After the robots with lightsabers the ninjas were pretty easy to deal with. Peter webbed the last ninja to the wall and rushed to the kneeling man in the suit, "Are you alright? Do you need to go the hospital?"
"It's...worse than it looks," he said softly, "Thanks. I've been...running from them for a while." He looked up and managed a smile despite the blood that ran down his nose. He was definitely blind, "You seem...familiar."
"I'm Spider-Man."
"Spider-Man? Ha...fate does have a funny way of things." His smile widened, showing off his bloodstained teeth, "My name's Matt Murdock...and I'm assuming you'll soon regret saving me."
Well, time to get back to some actual plot! And for anyone worrying, don't worry. Unlike Looking Glass I don't plan to have more than one main plot. Matt Murdock is still tied to the Goblin Impostor arc rather than having to jockey for attention. That and I don't really want him as a giant antagonist since canon and LG already did that and because he's of no threat to Gwen now. He's more a test of Gwen's character along with MCU Peter's.
Anyway, on the bright side the two leads are together now with no ducking around the issue for 50 chapters. This is really fast for me, but it's what the readers want and it fits the tone of the fic.
Question:
1. More a curiosity than anything else, but would you guys be interested in a Miles/Gwen spiderverse fic or a reversal where Gwen gets stuck in the MCU? The latter seems to be a semi-frequent request in some places.
Chapter 13: Get a Room
A couple of weeks passed and they'd settled into a routine. Every day they'd check over the job listing and see what was reasonable. They mostly screened the pointless ones like those blatantly asking for dates or people who wanted to pay for a week straight of 12 hour work a day, though they did take a few for laughs. One guy wanted them at his comic shop for a couple of hours just to pose and ask questions, which was harmless and fun enough.
There were a few requests that Gwen legitimately wasn't sure if she was supposed to take it seriously or not. One guy wanted to hire her for a strip routine (blocked) and another was an old lady old enough to be her grandma who wanted to set her up with 'her dashing father' (gross, and also blocked). Peter seemed to find the latter funny, though much less so after she reminded him of Patsy Walker and their 'date'.
And then came the entitled ones.
She knew they'd come sooner or later, but people asking for her to beat up people they didn't like for free made her almost trip when she saw it. Sure, she wasn't going to be a rent-a-thug even if they paid her, but it was still a jolt. Probably didn't help that trying to explain that she was not, in fact, an attack dog led to numerous complaints about
"Woah, look at this one." Betty pointed at the laptop screen. They were at the couch with Betty at the center, Gwen to her left and Peter to her right. It was a morning tradition at this point, "1 star rating. This so-called 'Superhero' is just a money grubbing- woah, not gonna say that word cause it's not nice." Betty rolled her eyes and deleted said word, "Is just a money grubbing bad word who only helps those who can pay for it. Why do people call her a hero again?"
"Wasn't that the guy who demanded you beat up some hobos cause they were dirty?" Peter asked.
"Yep. When I told him I wasn't gonna do that he went ballistic and said they were 'dirtying his neighborhood' and that I had to do it. Guess with a username like 'The Elite' you really can't expect much." Gwen rolled her eyes. She might've understood if said hobos attacked him or something, but no. Apparently his sensitive widdle eyes just couldn't take seeing someone 'so disgusting' in his neighborhood. Jerk.
"Here's another goodie." Betty clicked on the link, "This guy's offering you to work at his pizzeria. No upfront price and salary's below minimum wage, cause 'you don't need that much money anyway since you can just swing everywhere'. Yeesh, we really need to start getting a filter on these guys." She deleted the request.
"I could whip something up, but we're always so busy..." Peter mumbled. That was true - if they weren't taking jobs then they were swinging around the city going from one crime to the next. Shadowcat still hadn't contacted them again, so she just assumed that S.H.I.E.L.D was taking their sweet time interrogating that Tinkerer guy. Impostor Goblin hadn't shown up at all, so she was fine with waiting.
Most of her work tended to be bodyguarding or searching for missing stuff, which was fine with her. A lot of the time she didn't even need to be that close. One time a bank actually hired her to help guard an armored car after they got a threat from the (new) Sinister Six about how they were gonna jack it. Worked out pretty well: robbery was foiled, all four (they weren't even trying to be accurate at that point) of the Six were in prison and she got a good review.
Peter was better at publicity. Comic shops, rides and even a visit to a children's hospital (that one he refused payment on). She joined him on a few of the latter ones, and she had to admit it was nice seeing those kids' faces light up when they saw them was really nice. She was still kinda skeevy on the site, but at least it allowed groups like Make a Wish to contact them easier.
Peter quit his job at the Dollar Dog and she decided to take a break from college, at least for a bit. It was nice, not having to worry about Professor Warren staring at her in class or her classmates trying to pull favors from 'Spider-Gwen'. Her dad was kinda put off at first, though when he saw the site he'd accepted it. Helped that she assured him the break was temporary. She wasn't planning to make this a career or anything.
"Hey, what's that one?" Peter pointed to a post and Betty clicked it.
Right then and there she should've known it was trouble. It had all the signs - 50 dollars for 2 hours to bodyguard two kids (not even close to enough) and, of course, a well-rehearsed sob story of being a single mother who was struggling to pay the bills. She knew she shouldn't have accepted - she'd seen way too many requests like this elsewhere and they never ended well. Maybe it was because she knew from her dad how hard being a single parent was, or maybe it was cause she'd been riding high on those kids' smiles from yesterday, but she accepted the job and even did it gratis.
Big mistake.
Gwen landed in front of the two story house (so much for struggling...) and rang the doorbell. Almost immediately a pitbull came charging at the door barking, "Woah, boy! I'm a friend!" She held up both hands and stepped back to avoid getting slobber on her costume.
The dog kept barking till eventually a woman stepped out and whistled. She was an older woman, probably early to mid 40's, and slightly heavyset with long brown hair tied up in a bun. Her clothes really didn't scream 'struggling single mom' unless you thought those sitcoms were really accurate, "Finally! You're late!" she cried out.
"Sorry about that, there was-"
"I don't care. Just get inside before they get rowdy." She practically stormed out like Gwen had personally spit on her cornflakes.
That should've been her one and only warning to get the hell out of there, especially since it wasn't like she was getting paid for this, but she shouldered on. Maybe the kids would be different.
Warning sign two: the woman lied about her kid's age.
She was explicitly told she'd be guarding (read: babysitting) a 5 and 7 year old. The man, who looked to be about 20, looked way too old to be 7 and way too young to be the so-called deadbeat father, "Hey, good lookin." He leered at her. Gwen cringed, "Took your sweet time, didn't ya?'
"Yeah...there was a crime on the way." Guy stealing an old lady's purse. Couldn't beat the classics, "So...where are the kids?"
"You're lookin' at im, beautiful." Could he just...stop? Please? "My little bro's upstairs playin' one of his games game." As if on cue, a very loud 'motherfucker!' came from the top of the stairs. That didn't sound like a kid either.
"Right, uh...how old are you two?"
"I'm 21, he's 16. Name's Alex, by the way."
"Right...well, I was told I'd be watching a couple of kids. 5 and 7 year old. Ring any bells?"
"Those are my cousins. They left a couple days ago."
"Huh, so I guess that means you don't really need me here."
"You took the job, doll. Two hours."
He leaned forward with that same grin. She slipped past him to the living room. Yeah, she was definitely just gonna ignore that, "Look, let's just get through this easy. I'm gonna ignore the fact that your mom lied to me and just finish the two hours because I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. So can we please-"
He slapped her ass.
She turned around and just stared at him. A part of her expected him to at least look sheepish, but he was the very picture of confidence, "Been wantin' to do that since you came in." He whistled briefly, "Now, what else are you hidin' under that hood-"
She webbed his mouth shut. His eyes widened and she pushed past him back to the entrance. He screamed something from behind her, but she didn't care. That was what she got for trying to do something good.
She got a 1 star review when she got back.
She was going to kill Betty when she got out of here.
The next job was recommended by her. 2000 dollars for half a day from a girl who 'wanted her powers for a day.' They all thought that it was just a fancy way of saying she needed a bodyguard.
Boy, were they wrong.
"What do you mean you can't give them to me?!" The girl was a couple of years younger than her, maybe 17 or 18, with dark blonde hair and tan skin. That should've been a giant warning sign already - 2000 dollars from a teenager without any parent in sight? Way too suspicious, "I told you I wanted your powers so give them to me! I paid for them!"
"You said you just needed me to stick around for 4 hours!" People were looking at them now, but she didn't care. She was getting tired of this BS, "What even made you think that I could give you powers?!"
"Well you weren't born with em, so you must've gotten them at some point, so you can give them to me for a bit!" she said, looking at Gwen like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Come on, just give it! I promise I'll give them back!" She stamped her foot.
"Look, lady, even if I wanted to I couldn't! It doesn't work that way!" The spider was dead - she'd slapped it to the floor herself years ago. Gwen was almost tempted to make a barb about Ms. Carla King looking around to see if she could eat it and maybe she'd get lucky, but she reined it in, "I'm sorry if this isn't what you're looking for, so just take your money back and-"
"Ugh, this is so unfair!" She stamped her foot again, "You don't even deserve those powers, so just give em to me!" Was this girl deaf or just dumb? "You're not even supposed to be out here! You should still be in prison for killing that giant lizard!"
It took everything Gwen had to not sock the girl in her smug, smarmy face. Instead she took a deep breath, threw her cash on the ground and swung away without another word. King shouted after her about being selfish and entitled, but Gwen blocked her out. She was tired. In two jobs flat any and all goodwill she had about the site had evaporated and now she wanted nothing more than to close it down to avoid more entitled pricks.
Her bad mood lessened slightly when she got a text from Peter, "At the usual place." She smiled. It was their thing ever since they started - every couple of days they'd meet up at the place where they got pizza and pig out while complaining about the terribad jobs they took. Usually it was just something slight like someone just wanting a few minutes overtime. Not like this.
There were burgers and shakes waiting for her. Her mouth curled up in a smile and she sat next to him, retracting her mask as she did, "Bad day?" He asked, a sympathetic look on his face. They were high up enough that he didn't have to worry about anyone seeing them.
"You dunno the half of it." She unwrapped the burger and took a generous bite, "This chick thought I could give her my powers for a day like it's a fucking bike or something. Tried to tell her that I couldn't and she just explodes, whining that 'she paid for it' and that 'I don't even deserve them'," she said, shifting her voice to a more mocking tone, "Just threw her cash away and left. Wanted to punch her in the face too, but being an ass isn't actually a crime."
She wasn't going to mention the crack about Peter. Better if she didn't bring it up.
"I've seen you save dozens of people. If anyone deserves it, it's you." She blushed slightly. Getting praised so openly was still a bit of a new thing for her, "What about the job yesterday? You just crashed back home and didn't want to talk."
Home...he'd started calling it that she didn't even know how long ago. Gwen doubted he even noticed, but it was...nice. She figured that the longer he stayed here the more he'd just wanna leave. He did still wanna go back, of course, but this wasn't the prison she thought it'd be for him.
They spent the next hour just talking about whatever came to mind. She was glad to hear that Peter's jobs went better than hers, though there was a dad who wanted him to date her daughter, which he very gracefully refused, "This is fun," Peter said, "I was actually thinking about, like, making a facebook back home so people could contact Spider-Man, but I never got around to it."
"Probably for the best. People are assholes on the net." They were outside of it too, but it was easier hiding behind a mask, "...Hey, when you get back and kick that big purple dude's ass, promise you'll keep contact, okay? I...like these hangouts we have."
"Y-Yeah, me too." She tried not to think about the red on his cheeks, "Listen, I was...uh, gonna go hang out with the other Spider guys for a bit, actually. Wanna come with?"
"Oh, uh, I'll catch up. I...actually have someone I wanna talk to."
They said their goodbyes and Gwen activated her portal watch as soon as he was out of sight. Peter just gave her an idea.
She couldn't talk to many people about her and Peter's...thing. Betty would go crazy, Glory would be overprotective and MJ...well, she didn't know what the redhead would do, but she didn't want to give her any ammo against her. She couldn't talk to Mayday, Jess or Cindy either - Mayday would've been grossed out, Jess was on vacay and Cindy...well, ten years in a bunker made Gwen not so confident in asking for relationship(?) advice.
So why not ask herself?
She found two of her and Peni in their own little group at the 'common room'. Ballerina Gwen (she was bad with names, sue her) looked up and waved her over, "Oh, hey, been a while since you went here." She was sitting next to the Spider-Gwen with a snake on her shoulder while Peni stood up on the chair. The girl was unbelievably short.
"Yeah, been kinda busy." She took one of the chairs and stared at the second Gwen. She was the one talking to the guy with the pistols, "Don't think we've met. I'm Gwen Stacy." She stuck her hand out and grinned.
"What a coincidence, me too." Mirror Gwen grinned back and shook her hand. They looked almost identical to one another, age and all, "Oh, and this is Webster." She gestured to the baby snake thing.
"Hello."
"Hey." Gwen didn't bother freaking out; she'd seen way weirder at this point, "So...I need some advice." She thought she'd just ask herself, but she didn't mind Peni being there. The more the merrier.
"Please tell me it's not about Matt Murderdock?" Mirror Gwen groaned.
"What, that guy? Nah, I beat him like a year ago." Other Gwen seemed honestly surprised at that, "It's nothing heavy, I promise. I just...I guess I need relationship advice?"
"Ooh, girl talk!" Peni cheered and sat down on the chair, legs swinging idly. The spider on her shoulder raised its head in a weirdly adorable way, "I never have these back home! No one wants to talk to the girl with the spider on her shoulder! Tell us everything!"
"Indoor voice, Peni," Ballerina Gwen chided lightly, "Anyway, I'm not really sure I'm the best for this. I'm not really good at this kind of stuff."
"What about Miles~?" Peni said, dragging the name out teasingly.
"Wh-What about him? We're just friends." Ballerina Gwen blushed. It was an odd look, seeing it on a younger her.
"Yeah, and all the holding hands and promising to hang out just the two of you? Totally just platonic there." Mirror Gwen snorted. The snake tilted its head to the side, "I dunno why you're denying it. You two are cute together."
"I'm not denying anything cause we're just friends!" Yeah...she knew herself enough when she was talking a load of BS, "A-Anyway, this isn't about me! It's about her!"
"Technically three of us here are Gwen, so that could really go anywhere," Mirror Gwen said.
"Don't be a smartass," Ballerina Gwen said. Her tone had leveled back into something confident again, "So, seriously, what's your deal? You said you needed help?"
"Right, well..." Gwen wrung her hands together nervously, "Um...I told her," she gestured to the youngest Gwen, "About my newest housemate."
"Yeah, what about-" BG paused, "Wait, are you two-"
"No...well, maybe?" Gwen groaned, "I...I don't know. We've kissed a couple of times, but the first was kind of a heat of the moment thing and the second one was cause the mood was really good and-"
"Alright, alright, slow down!" BG raised a hand to cut her off, "Let's start from the beginning one last time."
So she told them everything. Meeting Peter all those weeks ago, all the crap they had to deal with, that warehouse explosion...everything. Peni seemed enamored, eyes wide and honest to god squealing when she told them about the kiss.
"Ooh, it's like those romance stories my mom and I used to watch!" Gwen almost turned away from the sheer brightness of Peni's smile, "Speaking of, I should go and tell dad- uh, Benjamin about those!"
"...Did you just call Ben dad?" BG raised an eyebrow and Gwen could already see the grin forming at the realization she had some leverage over the other girl.
"No, I didn't!"
"Oh, I definitely heard that!" BG's grin was full force now "I can't wait to tell the others about this!"
"N-No, don't! He'll freak out!" The spider chomped its mandibles to match its owners panic.
"Guys, I think we're getting off track," MG said, "Alright, so you and Peter - really need to start labeling these guys - made out and you're not really sure what you're supposed to do now. That about sum it up?"
"I guess so..." It sounded so petty when she said it like that, "I just...I've never dated before. Never. I got my powers when I was 15 and after that I was just too busy to even think about going on dates or anything." Then there was the year of prison, which she didn't even want to think about. Thankfully no one tried to get fresh in the showers.
...Though, that was mostly cause they were busy beating the crap out of her.
"A lot of us Spiders don't get to date much for obvious reasons," MG said, "Let's go back a bit. Is there a reason you don't wanna date him?"
"Two main ones come to mind." Gwen let out a slow breath, "He's kinda trapped in my place now and his home's not in the best shape. I'm not sure if having that hanging over our heads if we try anything's a good idea. That and when we fix whatever's happening back in his place he's gonna want to go home."
"Dimensional travel's pretty simple now that we've improved the transporters," Peni said, "Isn't it just like taking a bus to see someone?"
"Maybe? I dunno, I've never dated anyone outside my own universe before." No, she didn't count that kiss with Miles. That was another heat of the moment thing and he was dating someone else from his own universe now, "Still, you know how busy we can all be. MJ tried the long distance thing and it didn't work out for her, and she doesn't even have Spider powers. What chance do I got?"
"It...sounds like you're doubting yourself more than any kind of relationship," BG said slowly.
"Am I?"
"Sounds like it," MG clapped her shoulder reassuringly, "Hey, I know what it's like, trust me. Back home me and Pete...well, did not have an easy go of it. Lot of arguments, lot of just...blowing up at each other. Sometimes I thought it would've been better if we just stayed away." She smiled bitterly, "But...we didn't, and I'm not saying it's perfect or anything, but I'm still glad I didn't just give up and think 'better not'."
"Wait, are you talking about the guy who had guns out before?" BG asked.
"Yeah...that's something we're dealing with."
"And you think that it's worth it?" Gwen asked hopefully.
MG nodded, "Yeah. Better to try, right? I mean...getting a bit personal here, but all three of us were blamed for something we didn't do." They all had varying expressions of discomfort while Peni put a small hand on BG's shoulder, "I'm guessing all three of us felt like throwing the suit into the harbor, but we didn't. We tried and tried and tried. If you can do that, why can't you just try with this?"
"Because I don't wanna lose him," Gwen said, voice louder than she intended, "Being Spider-Woman was my choice and it was just me. What if...What if we try and it doesn't work? Can we just...pretend that it's not going to be awkward?"
Peni was the one to break the silence that followed, "Being Spider-Woman wasn't just about you." Gwen met the younger girl's eyes, "If you got hurt or caught or killed, then your friends and family would've had to deal with it. You would've left them behind..." She tightened her hold on her backpack straps, "Maybe I'm too young for this stuff, but I think you should give it a go. Real friends won't abandon each other even if it gets messed up."
"I'm with Peni," BG said, "Why not give it a shot? I mean, Lord knows we need to take whatever we can get."
"Does that mean you're finally gonna ask out Miles?" Peni asked. Her bright smile returned in full force.
"Uh, this is about her, not me- and I swear to god if you make another comment about the three of us being the same I will hurt you." BG gave MG a halfhearted glare while the older Gwen put her hands up in amused surrender.
"Huh...thanks, that actually helps a lot." Gwen smiled, "I...I guess I should talk to Peter."
"Good luck. I know from experience that dating another Spider isn't easy," MG said. Gwen felt sympathetic, though maybe that was cause they looked like twins, "Speaking of which, I think I overheard Spider-Ham saying they were going to give someone love advice. Do you think it's the same Peter you're talking about?"
"Uh...no. I mean, what are the chances?"
"So...I just ask her out?"
Ham nodded enthusiastically while Noir sighed nearby. He'd called them a day ago to ask for advice, though only Spider-Ham really seemed into the idea. Noir mostly just disapproved in the background while UK seemed somewhat perturbed at Ham's gusto.
"Yep! Trust me, kid, being willing to take charge is an attractive trait." Ham nodded confidently, "So here's what you do. You get the setting just right - I recommend a good, brightly colored room with just a hint of trumpet music in the background. After that you give her all the signs. I'm talking hearts in your eyes, a little floatin' and maybe even an 'awooga!' here or there."
"Uh...I can't do any of that." Maybe the awooga, but something told him Gwen wouldn't be a fan.
"Huh...oh, yeah, I forgot about that." Spider-Ham visibly (and literally) deflated, "So...what can you do?"
"This is a waste of time." Noir threw his cigarette to the ground and stomped it flat, "I don't get the point of this. I thought you wanted to go home? That was the entire point of us making those trips into that place where people got turned to dust." Peter winced. The blunt reminder felt like a punch to the face, "Now you're telling me you want to, what, stay here?"
"No..." Peter brought a hand through his hair nervously, "But I mean, they're not mutually exclusive, right? Why can't I date Gwen and go back?"
"Seems like hassle to me." Noir scoffed.
"We're not here to pass judgement, Peter," Spider-UK said, "I'd also like to remind you that cross-dimensional relationships are, in fact, a possibility. My and Lady Reilly's courtship is quite healthy." Peter smiled. He appreciated the help...even if Billy was dating a version of his aunt.
"Sure, but you've basically moved into her world when you're not over at the base. The kid ain't the same." Noir shook his head, "But fine, guessing reason ain't on the agenda today, so let's help the kid with his crush."
"So...do you have any advice, Noir?" Peter asked hesitantly.
"I'm old fashioned. I'd suggest you ask her out to a hootenanny, but I doubt you have those around here." Considering he didn't even know what that was, he was guessing no, "Why don't you just ask her out, then? No messing around. Stacy doesn't seem like the type to be into classic romance so just do what's fun for both of you and see where it goes."
"Wow...I can see your heart growing three sizes there, Noir," Ham said. Noir scowled at him, "Oops, nevermind, it's shrinking back to pea size. It was nice while it lasted."
"Don't make me grill you over the file, porky."
"You wanna try, tall, black and white and broody? I'm right here."
"Please, let's not fight. We're here for Spider-Man's sake." Spider-UK got between them with a disarming smile, "My advice for your would be to simply do what comes naturally. Courtship rituals aren't a universal standard and what one might find charming another might find repulsive. If you're reasonably certain of Ms. Stacy's feelings then let it come naturally."
"That's what I'm worried about." Peter stepped down from the vent roof, "I'm...I'm pretty sure we both like each other, but it feels like there's something like a wall. Every time I think about talking about it it's like my tongue bloats up and I can't say anything. Betty's kinda noticed it too. Sometimes she talks to me or Gwen what the deal is and we can't answer."
"Wait, something I'm confused about. I thought you liked Mary Jane Watson?" Noir asked.
"I did. I mean, I do; she's a good friend." She just didn't want anything more than that. Which he was totally cool with, by the way. She was cool, he was cool, they were all cool.
"Huh...you move on fast." This time it felt like a punch in the gut.
"Ah, leave the kid alone! We can't all be old fashioned and pining like you!" Spider-Ham said, "He tried dating her, it didn't work out and he's moving on. What's the big deal?"
"You know, every time you talk I feel like I'm hearing nails on a chalkboard."
"And I think that's our cue to leave!" UK said in a rush, "Best of luck to you, Mr. Parker. Don't hesitate to call on us for aid should you need it."
"Yeah, sure..." Peter watched them leave through a portal and put on his mask again, "That wasn't helpful at all."
"I don't know. I think Spider-Ham's advice has merit," Karen chimed in his ear, "Why didn't you ask me for advice, Peter? I was hurt."
"Don't start, Karen." He sighed and swung back home. Gwen was probably back by now.
"It's a legitimate question."
"Cause I knew what you'd say. You'd just tell me that I should go in there, take off my mask and kiss Gwen right in the lips. Right?"
"I would've also suggested doing it upside down-"
"Karen." He used a water tower as a spring, "Look, this isn't as simple as just asking someone out on a date, alright? She's...Gwen is..." Amazing, brave, confident, daring...he could probably go through the entire alphabet, "I just don't wanna mess this up, okay? I owe her a lot and if we screw this up then..." Then he might lose her even as a friend. He couldn't take that.
"You need to be more confident, Peter. You're a sweet and brave young man but you keep putting yourself down. Gwen cares about you and you care about her. There's no shame in it."
"I'm not ashamed, I'm just..." He paused and forced himself to continue, "I'm scared. I know it's dumb. I mean, I went to space with Mr. Stark and fought aliens, but this...it's so hard, Karen."
"I understand. Just do what you think is best, Peter."
She didn't say anything the entire trip back. Peter opened the window to Gwen's place and arrived at the living room just when the blue portal opened and Gwen stepped out. The two of them stared at each other awkwardly, "Uh...hey," Peter pulled off his mask. He probably looked bad, windswept and sweaty and all, "You, uh, went to Loomworld?"
"Yeah, talked to some friends." She kicked at the ground lightly, "How...How was chatting with the guys?"
"Oh, it was cool. Just...talking. Guy stuff, you know..."
"Yeah- I mean, same thing. Girl stuff, spider stuff..."
"I know-"
"Oh for god's sake, get a room, you two!"
Both of them jumped and turned to the couch to find an irate Betty with Murderface on her lap. Both of them were glaring at the pair, "Betty?! What the fuck, how long have you been there?!" Gwen screamed, a hand to her chest.
"From the start of time," she said flatly, "Not the point. Could you just..do something about this thing you guys have? Cause I've been the third wheel for two weeks now and it's getting pretty old. I'm literally choking on the sexual tension in the air."
"Sexual tension?" Peter's entire face turned red.
"I must agree with Ms. Brant, Peter. It is rather palpable," Karen piped up in speaker mode, "Might I suggest we leave and let the pair sort it out, Ms. Brant?"
"My pleasure."
Betty pushed them both into the (rather small) bedroom, took Karen from his hands and locked the door behind them. It was a hollow threat - both of them were more than strong enough to break the door down with their pinky - but the message was clear. They weren't getting out till they sorted this...thing.
He and Gwen just...looked at each other. The silence stretched on for seconds and eventually Peter thought that he'd just scream to block it all out
And then Gwen started laughing.
It was soft at first, more giggles than anything, and then it belted on to full out laughter. Peter stared at her like she'd gone insane before he smiled and started laughing with her. It was so stupid. After everything that happened, why was he so scared of the woman in front of him? He knew Gwen. Even if he messed up she wouldn't just cut off contact, not like...like...
Why did he think of Liz? It wasn't his fault she had to move away or that Mr. Toomes was in prison. He made the choice to steal, to put people in danger. He tried to give him a chance and he squandered it. He shouldn't have felt guilty.
"That's Betty for you, I guess," Gwen said, slightly breathless, "Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels like an idiot?"'
"No, no. I definitely feel like an idiot too."
"Heh...good."
They kissed again. This time there was no hesitation or being scared of what came after.
Peter woke up at the bed hours later, "Gwen?" There was a sticky note taped to the chest of his costume. He picked up and smiled at the letters, 'Had to check on dad. Let's go out tomorrow. Goodnight.'
He stood up and stretched his stiff limbs before leaving the (now-unlocked) room. Betty was asleep on the couch and Peter took the mask back from her hands, "Was it resolved, Peter?" Karen sounded very smug right now.
"Yeah, I think so. We're...going on a date tomorrow." He looked out the window. It was night out, but he could do with some patrolling.
It didn't take long for him to find something worth stopping for, "Are those...ninjas?" He landed on the pole and Karen zoomed in. Yep, those were definitely ninjas with katanas. He counted at least four of them and they were surrounding a bleeding guy in a suit and a walking cane. Peter's eyes narrowed. What kind of people beat up on a blind guy?
After the robots with lightsabers the ninjas were pretty easy to deal with. Peter webbed the last ninja to the wall and rushed to the kneeling man in the suit, "Are you alright? Do you need to go the hospital?"
"It's...worse than it looks," he said softly, "Thanks. I've been...running from them for a while." He looked up and managed a smile despite the blood that ran down his nose. He was definitely blind, "You seem...familiar."
"I'm Spider-Man."
"Spider-Man? Ha...fate does have a funny way of things." His smile widened, showing off his bloodstained teeth, "My name's Matt Murdock...and I'm assuming you'll soon regret saving me."
Well, time to get back to some actual plot! And for anyone worrying, don't worry. Unlike Looking Glass I don't plan to have more than one main plot. Matt Murdock is still tied to the Goblin Impostor arc rather than having to jockey for attention. That and I don't really want him as a giant antagonist since canon and LG already did that and because he's of no threat to Gwen now. He's more a test of Gwen's character along with MCU Peter's.
Anyway, on the bright side the two leads are together now with no ducking around the issue for 50 chapters. This is really fast for me, but it's what the readers want and it fits the tone of the fic.
Question:
1. More a curiosity than anything else, but would you guys be interested in a Miles/Gwen spiderverse fic or a reversal where Gwen gets stuck in the MCU? The latter seems to be a semi-frequent request in some places.
Read the latest Spider Gwen:
On a non-spoilery note, Gwen has completely abandoned the Ghost Spider name:
Ah, the benefits of synergy Also, Gwen's default attire is a white jacket, teal undershirt, black leggings and teal shoes...yeah, she's not even trying. That'd be like if Peter Parker went around with a red and blue shirt constantly. Oh well, I guess she's got nothing to hide now that her secret identity is shot:
Also, I was absolutely right about one thing: Betty's the one who helps set up her Hero for Hire site. She even talks about taxes and the complications of business, which I didn't focus on in the fic. I should probably do that. Now that Gwen and Peter are making money hand over fist you just know people are waiting to gouge them and take their cuts:
Also confirmed: Gwen can't cook. That should be another thing that would make MCU more appealing. Given that he's not above raiding dumpsters for computer components I imagine he must've learned how to cook to save up on cash. She's never going to let this guy go once she finds out he comes with home cooked meals.
Pretty slow chapter. Gwen starts up her Hero for Hire business (with help from Betty) and tries to gain a sense of normalcy in her life. Truth be told nothing really much happens this chapter - she talks with her dad, talks with her bandmates, stops Bodega Bandit (who very stupidly used a popgun, which likely would've led to him getting shot at by police), gets asked out by Harry, and briefly tangles with Man-Wolf. The usual.
...Well, up until we get to see Man-Wolf's associate:
Yep, that's Miles Warren in a story involving Gwen Stacy. We are most likely heading into the Earth-65 Clone Saga, folks. Buck your seatbelts...
Anyway, still not in it for the Harry/Gwen angle. Doesn't help that the way he asks her out makes Gwen look awkward about it:
...Well, up until we get to see Man-Wolf's associate:
Yep, that's Miles Warren in a story involving Gwen Stacy. We are most likely heading into the Earth-65 Clone Saga, folks. Buck your seatbelts...
Anyway, still not in it for the Harry/Gwen angle. Doesn't help that the way he asks her out makes Gwen look awkward about it:
On a non-spoilery note, Gwen has completely abandoned the Ghost Spider name:
Ah, the benefits of synergy
Also, Gwen's default attire is a white jacket, teal undershirt, black leggings and teal shoes...yeah, she's not even trying. That'd be like if Peter Parker went around with a red and blue shirt constantly. Oh well, I guess she's got nothing to hide now that her secret identity is shot:
Also, I was absolutely right about one thing: Betty's the one who helps set up her Hero for Hire site. She even talks about taxes and the complications of business, which I didn't focus on in the fic. I should probably do that. Now that Gwen and Peter are making money hand over fist you just know people are waiting to gouge them and take their cuts:
Also confirmed: Gwen can't cook. That should be another thing that would make MCU more appealing. Given that he's not above raiding dumpsters for computer components I imagine he must've learned how to cook to save up on cash. She's never going to let this guy go once she finds out he comes with home cooked meals.
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"Will you walk into my parlour, said a Spider to Peter;
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy."
Last edited:
Gwen: "You're staying."
Peter: "Huh, but...my dimension and Thanos-"
Gwen: "Nope, never going back to take-out again so you're staying. Non-negotiable."
Also, Peter does attract Spiders. Gwen thought MJ was bad? She hasn't met Peter's biggest fan yet:
Gwen is torn between laughing and being worried. Also, a scene I wish I put in:
Gwen would be no match for MCU's Cinnamon Rollness. That and dealing with competition.
Bit of an odd question, but still curious. Between Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane, who's considered the more attractive one in-universe? I can't use artstyle since that shifts depending on who's holding the pen like Peter either being sculpted like a Greek god or looking like a background NPC. Case in point during under Takeshi Miyazawa:
I could use their comparative appearances as a bit of character fodder later on. So, who's generally considered the 'hotter' one?
I could use their comparative appearances as a bit of character fodder later on. So, who's generally considered the 'hotter' one?
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Wouldn't that kind of thing depend on your type?
They're both not notably unattractive, which makes it more of a preference thing.
But you may factor in style, confidence and general effort in making one being perceived as "hot". Whoever has more, than the other at the moment would likely the one, who breaks the tie.
In provided pictures, though, Gwen has more of a "girl next door" type (and I can't read her expression, but she doesn't look very secure in that frame) and twinkle in the eye of Mary Jane makes her on the "hot" side. But she is at her best within her element there and it's part of the performance. It's relative.
In panels above Gwen looks like a rebel... and a bit of a slob, but that's her off time, so who knows?
They're both not notably unattractive, which makes it more of a preference thing.
But you may factor in style, confidence and general effort in making one being perceived as "hot". Whoever has more, than the other at the moment would likely the one, who breaks the tie.
In provided pictures, though, Gwen has more of a "girl next door" type (and I can't read her expression, but she doesn't look very secure in that frame) and twinkle in the eye of Mary Jane makes her on the "hot" side. But she is at her best within her element there and it's part of the performance. It's relative.
In panels above Gwen looks like a rebel... and a bit of a slob, but that's her off time, so who knows?
Last edited:
Type does play a role, certainly, though like you said it could also apply to style, confidence and general effort. I'm vurious if Gwen by herself in her general style would be considered more attractive than Mary Jane or vice-versa; especially in the context of the fic since a large chunk of MCU's initial attraction to MJ was physical while with Gwen he never really brings it up outside of calling her pretty while babbling.
Ghost Spider 7 Preview:
Welp, looks like there's definitely an economic gap. People on the streets and the average working joes like her, but the rich and powerful are not so fond of Gwen. It's actually pretty sad to see her honestly look ashamed and break down from everything knowing how people see her despite everything she's done and sacrificed for them. Being Spider-Gwen is suffering.
...On a more off-topic note, I have to say it: Gwen, get some different shoes! I know those damn teal flats are iconic but those colors do not mesh well with your dress! God!
Going for a more fic related bend, this is exactly what I wanted to see since I didn't know how to write something for how MCU and Gwen would date. Moments like these are extremely juicy and are really useful for character fodder, especially in MCU trying to understand and comfort Gwen's struggles; especially since he himself never experienced it due to Earth-19999 being far more appreciative and kind to their heroes.
Welp, looks like there's definitely an economic gap. People on the streets and the average working joes like her, but the rich and powerful are not so fond of Gwen. It's actually pretty sad to see her honestly look ashamed and break down from everything knowing how people see her despite everything she's done and sacrificed for them. Being Spider-Gwen is suffering.
...On a more off-topic note, I have to say it: Gwen, get some different shoes! I know those damn teal flats are iconic but those colors do not mesh well with your dress! God!
Going for a more fic related bend, this is exactly what I wanted to see since I didn't know how to write something for how MCU and Gwen would date. Moments like these are extremely juicy and are really useful for character fodder, especially in MCU trying to understand and comfort Gwen's struggles; especially since he himself never experienced it due to Earth-19999 being far more appreciative and kind to their heroes.
Read the latest Spider-Gwen:
Incidentally, I was absolutely right that the HFH app's 'jobs' would be the most petty shit like cats stuck in trees, selfies and people asking for dates.
Incidentally, that kid who asked her out must be a midget cause he looks tiny next to 5'5 Gwen. Still, it does feel kind of unfair that I wrote Peter going out on a date with Patsy Walker but Gwen doesn't get to go out with a stud. Should I rectify this, you guys think?
Despite what the previews indicate, this is not a heavy or depressing chapter. Literally the page after Gwen leaves those snooty assholes she gets a ping from her Hero For Hire app (apparently her first after a week of silence) where a scientist hires her to swing through the air with a container to get high altitude air particles for 200 dollars, which is pretty clearly a shout-out to Spidey PS4's Harry missions. After that she gets pinged throughout the week, getting jobs from everything: rescuing cats from trees, posing for selfies and, of course, requests from horny high school boys to bring her as a date for a formal dance.
Incidentally, that kid who asked her out must be a midget cause he looks tiny next to 5'5 Gwen.
After that it's business as usual. The band gets a gig (the trap for next issue) and Gwen talks to Harry about it who asks her about her constant headaches. The end part is more action-y: Gwen gets a ping on the site that there's been a MASSIVE multi-car pile up that's about to explode and they need her help. Best part? The one who calls her for help is a cop, and the guy even scratches his head and goes 'Captain Stacy's gonna kill us' when Gwen swings into the rescue:
Gwen manages to rescue everyone still left alive, and very professionally so, and after that we finally get what looks like an olive branch when the cop offers to discuss payment options and Gwen refuses on the grounds that she refuses to charge for essential hero work. It's small, but I get the feeling that this is the beginning of Gwen finally getting a better rep now that she's proven to a police officer that she is legitimate and not money grubbing or fame hungry:
Anyway, the chapter ends with Gwen musing that she needs help with the symbiote and she only has one person to turn to: Dr. Elsa Brock, it's creator. While I get what they're going for, it's really dumb that Gwen mentions Reed and then suddenly dismisses him cause 'he's in sixth grade'. Um, Gwen, that sixth grader made you a dimensional portal out of legos! I think he can help with a symbiote!
But yeah, all in all this issue was actually pretty lighthearted and not at all heavy or depressing like the preview would lead you to believe. The summary's also wrong - it indicated that Gwen's date with Harry would be mucked up due to her HFH work but Gwen never suffers from being overbooked and the date is messed up because of another reason entirely i.e those snobs. Speaking of Harry, I'm liking him a bit more, due to exposure if nothing else, but his dialogue with Gwen at the diner (where she doesn't get snubbed, as expected) makes me worry that he might have entitlement issues like 65-Peter before him:
His comment on having 'dibs' on Gwen just kinda rubs one the wrong way. Hopefully I'm wrong cause I'm actually starting to kinda to kinda like/not hate the guy.
Incidentally, that kid who asked her out must be a midget cause he looks tiny next to 5'5 Gwen.
After that it's business as usual. The band gets a gig (the trap for next issue) and Gwen talks to Harry about it who asks her about her constant headaches. The end part is more action-y: Gwen gets a ping on the site that there's been a MASSIVE multi-car pile up that's about to explode and they need her help. Best part? The one who calls her for help is a cop, and the guy even scratches his head and goes 'Captain Stacy's gonna kill us' when Gwen swings into the rescue:
Gwen manages to rescue everyone still left alive, and very professionally so, and after that we finally get what looks like an olive branch when the cop offers to discuss payment options and Gwen refuses on the grounds that she refuses to charge for essential hero work. It's small, but I get the feeling that this is the beginning of Gwen finally getting a better rep now that she's proven to a police officer that she is legitimate and not money grubbing or fame hungry:
Anyway, the chapter ends with Gwen musing that she needs help with the symbiote and she only has one person to turn to: Dr. Elsa Brock, it's creator. While I get what they're going for, it's really dumb that Gwen mentions Reed and then suddenly dismisses him cause 'he's in sixth grade'. Um, Gwen, that sixth grader made you a dimensional portal out of legos! I think he can help with a symbiote!
But yeah, all in all this issue was actually pretty lighthearted and not at all heavy or depressing like the preview would lead you to believe. The summary's also wrong - it indicated that Gwen's date with Harry would be mucked up due to her HFH work but Gwen never suffers from being overbooked and the date is messed up because of another reason entirely i.e those snobs. Speaking of Harry, I'm liking him a bit more, due to exposure if nothing else, but his dialogue with Gwen at the diner (where she doesn't get snubbed, as expected) makes me worry that he might have entitlement issues like 65-Peter before him:
His comment on having 'dibs' on Gwen just kinda rubs one the wrong way. Hopefully I'm wrong cause I'm actually starting to kinda to kinda like/not hate the guy.
Incidentally, I was absolutely right that the HFH app's 'jobs' would be the most petty shit like cats stuck in trees, selfies and people asking for dates.
Incidentally, that kid who asked her out must be a midget cause he looks tiny next to 5'5 Gwen. Still, it does feel kind of unfair that I wrote Peter going out on a date with Patsy Walker but Gwen doesn't get to go out with a stud. Should I rectify this, you guys think?
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
No, you're good as is.
Three MJ's and Two Babies (Nerdman3000 Omake)
- Location
- Miami, Florida
I posted this on Spacebattles, but here is a MJ Omake I mentioned there I was going to write, based on vendetta543/eratas123's two Spider-Man stories, Two Spiders on a Web and Through the Looking Glass/Madhouse Blues. It takes place during Chapter 10 of Two Spiders on a Web but is from Two Spider's On a Web Mary Jane's POV. You'll see lots of Spider cameo's, some familiar, some obscure, and even a few I completely made up.
This is mostly for fun, and to help me a bit in getting back to the feeling of writing, as I haven't written much in a while. That and to get a feel for writing Mayday Parker (who shows up in this story), since I'm thinking of writing a Mayday and Annie Parker time travel adventure story.
So, with that, I guess I can only say, enjoy.
***
Mary Jane Watson (technically of Earth-65, not that she knew it) couldn't deny it to herself anymore, this whole place was completely unreal. Don't get her wrong, sure, she might have grown used to the insane fact that her best friend, and one of her bandmates, Gwen Stacy, was a frickin' Superhero who could stick to walls and swing around the city. But all this? Other dimensions filled to the brim with alternate Spider people who coincidentally were like 90% made up of different versions of Peter Parker of all people? With the rest filled with versions of Gwen, and some dude named Miles?
That was a whole other level of weirdness.
Come on Mary Jane. Your best friend can literally crawl on walls and you went out on a date with a guy from a different world. Hold yourself together girl and remember to act natural.
Closing her eyes, MJ shook her head a bit and sighed, before opening them again, as she looked around, resolving herself to move away from, well, whatever it was that Betty was chatting with the talking Spider-Buggie about (and god, wasn't that weird to see, let alone think about), and maybe try to find Glory or Gwen. Moving off the talking car she was leaning on, MJ gazed down at Betty, who was almost hugging the Spider-Buggie, while Murderface sat licking himself next to her, and forced a well-trained easygoing grin on her face.
"Hey Bets? I'm going to look for Gwencent and Glory. You okay here?"
Betty paused to blink up at her from behind her glasses, before she half-distractedly nodded and turned her attention back to the talking car, who from the sound of his British accent, was getting increasingly alarmed by the fact he was being aggressively accosted by the Mary Janes lead guitarist, who was at that very moment attempting and failing to convince the car to return with them back to their world.
Surprising as it may sound, the talking British Spider car wasn't the strangest thing Mary Jane had seen today.
In fact, Mary Jane had already so far seen a dude (another Peter she was guessing by the suit which was similar to the one she previously went on a date with) with six arms, a man dressed up as a weird mix between a whitewashed genderbent Captain America and Spider-Man, a man in a blue suit with the letter four on his chest wearing a brown paper bag on his head, two Spider-Pig's talking to a Spider-Cat, a fat dude in a Spider suit with the words 'Peter Parker: Spider-Man' blazed on his chest, and a Spider-Man wearing nothing but a mask and underwear. And those few themselves were just the ones she was looking directly at right now.
Perhaps if it were anyone else, this would be the point right where they'd have a mental breakdown of some kind, after seeing all the insanity which was currently happening right before her eyes. MJ herself would be lying if she said that the current situation wasn't freaking her out just the tiniest bit, because it almost certainly was. Just because Mary Jane had gotten used to the idea Gwen being Spider-Woman didn't mean she suddenly immune to realizing the craziness of this stuff. After all, she had had plenty of time before she gotten confirmation that Gwen was Spider-Woman to process the fact, what with her heavily suspecting Gwen's secret identity beforehand. Now though?
Now it was honestly a wonder Mary Jane was even able to hide how much everything she was currently seeing was freaking her out as well as she was. It was times like these that she thanked god for all those acting classes her mom used to take her to as a little kid. They had admittedly had partially been in order to get away from her dad, but Mary Jane had grown to love them. Sure, Mary Jane had always preferred the singing roles (she had especially loved playing Ariel in the play for The Little Mermaid), but it wasn't like those other acting lessons hadn't been darn useful, as the past few months and especially today had been showing.
This whole insanity she was in right now certainly was not at all what she expected to be seeing when she woke up this morning, though then again though, Mary Jane had been having a weird week, so it shouldn't surprise her.
"Weird week? That's an understatement…" Mary Jane muttered to herself. "Hell, it's been a weird couple of months…"
She snorted quietly, shaking her head as she wove her way through the crowd of Spider people, passing a long haired brunette in a red suit with a white spider symbol who was chatting with a dude who oddly enough was dressed like her Halloween costume from two years ago, and a Spider-Man in silvery armor who was trying to chat up a Asian woman dressed in white and black. Behind them, stood a white-haired lady dressed in a black catsuit that left far too much ample amount of cleavage and whose gimmick seemed to be a cross between spiders and cats. Said cat spider lady was at present talking to a Spider-Man who was for some reason also wearing a long red cape. Snippets of their conversations fluttered through to her ears as she walked by.
"-see, I'm actually a female clone of Pete-"
"-a clone huh? Know the feelin-"
"-yeah, I got a whole company and everything-"
"-uhh…please don't talk to me-"
"-going to lie, that cape looks perrrrfectly ridiculous on yo-"
"-yeah, yeah, real thanks there Felica-"
Mary Jane though mostly tried to tune them all out, deciding it was for the best she ignored them as much as possible. The more she separated herself from the craziness around her, the better. Stopping to stand on her toes a bit, MJ tried to see if she could spot Glory and Gwen, well, her Gwen at least. God knows it would be hard to tell her apart from the other Gwen's in this place if her Gwen hadn't decided to leave off the mask and wear that headband Betty got her for Christmas while Gwen was in prison, which MJ knew for a fact the blonde drummer hated (not that Gwencent would ever say anything).
While Mary Jane did see a few Gwen's, she was disappointed to find that none of the ones she saw were unmasked and wearing Betty's gift, so sadly no cigar. She did however finally spot Glory, who was casually sipping something from a cup, as she sat surrounded by a couple of weirdly dressed Spider's.
As Mary Jane approached, she saw that there were four of them to be exact, surrounding Glory as she practically interrogated them. One Spider-Man, who was strangely wearing a monocle, looked like he was from a Steampunk world, with his wrist holding some kind of mechanical rope dart device, while he smoked a small pipe from the opening in his mask. Next to him was another Shakespeare looking Spider-Man, dressed like he was from the 1600s, while behind him stood a Spider-Man dressed in old Ancient Greek or Roman armor. By his feet sat some big ancient Greek looking vases with art of warriors fighting lions, from which he refilled a simple cup of what MJ guessed was wine.
God, I can smell that stuff from here!
Of the bunch, the only normal looking Spider-Man seemed to be the one sitting at Glory's right. His suit was not unlike the Peter MJ had come to know the past few weeks, minus the black lines on her Peter's suit and the fact this Spider-Man's web wings seemed to be permanently extended.
Glory, MJ saw, was currently directly asking that normal looking Spider-Man questions between sips of whatever it was she was drinking (was she drinking that wine?), "So wait, kids in the 60's actually used to hang out in candy stores?"
"Of course, where else would they get together?"
Glory blinked in astonishment, "Wow… That's so weird…" She than turned and saw the approaching Mary Jane, her eyes lighting up.
"MJ!"
The four Spiders turned to her, as did a couple of other spiders in the vicinity, such as one spider, who seemed to be a ten-year-old redheaded girl in pigtails and blue kiddy armor, who had a wide-eyed gaping look as she spotted MJ, before sprinting away.
Glory turned toward the four Spiders, waving her hand in Mary Jane's direction, "Right, sorry about that. Allow me to introduce one of my best friends, Mary Jane Watson. Mary Jane, meet Peter Parker, the Spider-Man of 1962," pointing to the normal looking Spider-Man, who's white eyes had gone comically wide, before turning to the 1600s looking Spider-Man, "Peter Parquagh, the Spider of 1602," then she pointed at the Steampunk looking Spider, "Peter Parker, the Spider-Man of 1889," and at last pointing to the ancient armor looking Spider, "and last, but not least, Ptolemy blah blah blah, all you need to know is that he's more commonly known as Caesarion, the Aranea of Rome, from 30 BC."
Glory leaned over to MJ, as if to whisper some exciting secret in her ear as she nodded in the direction of the armored Spider, "No shit by the way, but his parents are actually Cleopatra and Julius Caesar."
Mary Jane blinked at the four Spider-Men, completely unsure of what to say. Honestly, she shouldn't be surprised to see that Glory had gravitated towards the history Spider's, knowing her. While Glory didn't advertise the fact all that often, Mary Jane knew Glory was privately actually quite the history buff and fan, so MJ wasn't completely shocked to see that the other girl was taking an interest in meeting Spiders from other time periods.
Still, that introduction didn't exactly leave much room for a conversation starter. Thankfully though, MJ didn't have to worry all that much as the one who broke the tension would in fact be the still wide-eyed normal Spider-Man stared at her, who finally stuttered out, "Y-your M-Mary Jade Watson? Anna Watson's niece?"
Mary Jane looked down at him, confused, "Uh, yeah. You know my aunt?"
He looked down, mumbling, "Y-yeah. Anna Watson in my world is my neighbor. She and Aunt May have been trying to get me together with her niece."
Mary Jane could tell he was embarrassed. If she had to take a guess, he had probably tried to avoid meeting with the her from his world. She probably would have done the same if her mom tried to get her together or introduce her to some boy.
Patting his shoulder, Mary Jane comforted him, "Well Tiger, while I don't know what that other me is like, I think if you give her a chance, you might just hit the Jackpot."
The Steampunk Spider-Man nodded, a puff of smoke coming out of his pipe, "Well said Lady Watson."
Next to him, Caesarion crossed his arms and said something in a language MJ didn't understand. The Steampunk Spider-Man responded back in the same language, Latin MJ was guessing, leading to Caesarion giving a short reply and nodding. The Steampunk Spider-Man turned to them, clearing his throat, "It would seem that young Caesarion is also in complete agreement."
Mary Jane tilted her head, "Were you translating for him in Latin or something?"
The Steampunk Spider-Man shook his head, "Ah, I see you caught the language? Are you perhaps familiar with it much? As you your question, no I'm afraid. Young Caesarion was simply asking for clarification on some of the words you said." Mary Jane didn't exactly know how to respond to that, so she just nodded, though Glory looked at the British Spider strangely, "Wait…he understands English?! I thought you said he couldn't speak it?"
The Steampunk Spider-Man looked down on her, and sniffed, before he shook his head, "No… well, at least not completely. I have lately been attempting to teach him English you see, and though he had made remarkable strides in understanding the language when it is spoken, I'm afraid he has had difficulty when it concerns actually speaking it. I am of course endeavoring to correct this."
Glory then looked at Caesarion, almost salivating, as though some new opportunity just arose on her doorstep. Glory, MJ thought, probably hadn't been happy at the fact that the Steampunk Spider-Man would have to translate everything, so she was do doubt thrilled that it had just gotten easier. MJ honestly dreaded to know what Glory was going to start asking the Roman Spider, immediately feeling bad for the poor guy. Still, MJ stuck around for a few minutes, just listening to all of Glory's questions to the Victorian and Roman Spider-Men (the 60's Spider-Man and 1602 Spider-Man had both eventually left for newer pastures), before at the corner of MJ's eye, she caught her Gwen, wearing that ridiculous spikey headband, as she was talking to some female Spider, who was unmasked. Quickly giving Glory and the two Spider-Men a nod and wishing her goodbyes, Mary Jane made her way to Gwen and the Spider-Girl she was with.
To both Mary Jane's surprise and amusement, she saw that the two women were actually hugging each other. Or rather, the other spider was hugging Gwen and Gwen was returning the gesture. As the two let go, MJ saw that the other girl looked to be around their age, if a bit younger. Mary Jane, as a person who generally didn't exactly care much for gender when pursuing relationships, couldn't deny that the short haired brunette was quite the looker.
Grinning as she walked toward the two, Mary Jane shouted to them, "Yo, Gwencent!" MJ vaguely noticed the brunette stiffening, but her attention at that moment lied more on Gwen, who was failing to try to hide how mortified and suddenly uncomfortable she was. MJ's grin grew wider, more and more wondering what exactly the relationship between the two women in front of her was, though she would admit to having already begun speculating on that front.
The pale looking Gwen, trying and failing to act casual, asked, "Hey, MJ. What's up?"
Mary Jane shrugged, "Nothing much. Betty's with that talking car - I think she's convincing it to come back with us," she nodded her head back at Betty's direction, "and Glory's looking over by the history Spiders. Wanted to see what you were up."
MJ's eyes shifted to the frozen and scandalized brunette, nodding in her direction, "Who's your friend?"
"Uh...this Mayday." Gwen nudged the other girl forward, "We were just...chatting."
"Huh, well, nice to meet you." Mary Jane gave the girl a smile, offering the teenager a hand. The brunette on the other hand, who Mary Jane guessed must be really shy, just oddly stared at the offered hand for a few seconds, before another nudge from Gwen brought her back to reality, "Uh, y-yeah, you too!"
She shook the hand as quick as possible before pulling away, just as fast.
Yup, MJ thought, definitely shy.
"Sooo…." Mary Jane began, hoping to break the awkwardness, tilting her head as she gazed at brunette, who seemed rooted to the spot, "Mayday huh? It certainly…" MJ looked up and down at the other girl, "-fits, I suppose." Tilting her head, "Is that your actual name though, or is it like a nickname? Cause to me it kind of sounds like a nickname."
Mayday however just continued to stare at her like a deer stuck in headlights. MJ would have thought it made her look adorable, but honestly, now she was getting concerned. Like did she do something wrong?
"Hello? Mayday? You alright? I don't smell bad do I?"
Mayday balked, "W-What? No! No of course you don't smell!" She began to mumble, "W-Why would you think you smelled…oh god I didn't mean...."
MJ just laughed a bit, "Hey, it's fine. It was just a joke. Really, I didn't mean anything by it. Honest."
Mayday looked down, "Oh…"
MJ just smiled, feeling suddenly bad for the other girl, as she realized the other girl must have massive self-esteem issues. It was a shame, Mary Jane thought. If not for that, she might have been willing to try and go for it with the other girl, even despite the fact that Mary Jane was still getting over the stinging left over feeling of her recent date with Peter, which MJ had ended up sort of botching. She still semi cursed herself a bit for how she had handled breaking the news she didn't want a relationship with Peter, remembering how the poor kids face fell.
Of course, just because she wasn't planning on trying her luck with Mayday, didn't mean MJ couldn't have some fun.
"Hey, trust me, I don't bite," Mary Jane said with a flirty grin, before pausing, "much…not unless you want me to. Do you want me bite Mayday?"
The response she got though was not nearly what Mary Jane was expecting, as the extremely shy girl in front of her started hyperventilating, looking moments away from a panic attack. Not at all what the redhead had intended.
MJ sighed. Okay, maybe she had miscalculated a bit and pushed her luck. She's was going to have to backtrack on things otherwise the other girl was going to pass out. Thank god Gwen was here…
Mary Jane blinked, looking for Gwen and suddenly not finding the blonde. Okay…correction. Gwen was not here.
The singer darted her head around, looking for her bandmate, only to eventually spot her hanging out with Peter, or at least, their Peter. Or well, not their Peter, because he was dead…ah never mind. Sigh. See, this is why there being a multiverse kind of sucked. Everything gets all confusing.
Mary Jane groaned. What the hell was she supposed to do now?
Okay, MJ, think! Earlier you were able to snap her out of her funk when you distracted her with that lame smelling bad joke, right? Okay, fine, but what? … Gah! Why is this so difficult?! Wait! What was the really lame thing that Morales kid back in High School tried to do to pick up Gwen? Eh, whatever, it's better than nothing.
Mary Jane raised her left arm and dropped it on Mayday's shoulder, giving her a smoldering look with a lopsided grin, startling Mayday. Bracing for impact, Mary Jane, with as much confidence as she could, spoke.
"Hey."
And just like that, Mayday had reentered the world of the living, while Mary Jane internally jumped for joy.
YES! EXCELSIOR! Wait, what does that even mean? You know what, who cares, that thing actually f*cking worked. Thank you, Morales!
Mayday on the other hand, having snapped out of whatever funk she was, looked around in confusion for a second, before looking at Mary Jane, equally as confused, "Mom?"
And just like that, the mental celebration going on in Mary Jane's head stopped. No not just stopped, it completely crashed and burned.
Did she just call me Mom? Why would she call me-oh…
Oh.
Oh!
OH GOD!
Mayday, who it seemed realized what she just said, quickly grabbed and helped to steady the stumbling Mary Jane, whose face was red in embarrassment.
"I'm so…I…god this is so embarrassing." Mary Jane mumbled, while Mayday, who it seemed finally got over the funk she was in, quietly laughed.
"Yeah, tell me about it."
The two women quietly laughed between themselves.
"So, like, I'm really sorry."
Mayday waved her off, "It's uh… it's fine. I mean, who doesn't want to get flirted at by a younger version of their mother," She nervously chuckled, before shaking her head, "To be honest though, I probably could have handled my reaction a bit better."
"…Yeah."
An uneasy silence appeared, before Mary Jane finally broke it, "So…um…I'm really your mom then?"
Mayday winced, "A version of her, yeah…"
"And uh, your dad?"
"Peter Parker."
Mary Jane blinked, tilting her head to the side, "Huh…"
Mayday nodded.
Silence.
"Really?"
"What?" Mayday asked, seemingly partially offended on her father's behalf.
Mary Jane shook her head, "It's just, I don't know. I mean, I once went on a date with the guy, but I can't imagine marrying him or having kids with him."
Mayday shook her head, "No offense mom-I mean Mary Jane, like eighty to ninety percent of dad's love life in the multiverse is basically him ending up with you or versions of you, with the remaining twenty or ten percent being dad marrying Gwen Stacy or Felicia Hardy. The only other person I've ever seen a version of dad marry is either Carol Danvers or Cindy Moon."
Mary Jane stared at her, mouthing to herself, 'Eighty to ninety'.
"W-What about me though?"
Mayday shrugged, "I haven't exactly met many other versions of you, to be honest, so I really don't know. The only ones I've met all ended up with dad though, with one possible exception, and I guess, you."
Mary Jane frowned, "Who'd she end up with then? The one possible exception."
"I don't know, that version of you was a stripper."
Mary Jane moved back, looking like she'd been slapped, while Mayday grimaced, and began cursing under her breath.
"W-wait?! Like an actual frickin-"
"Yes! And please, let's maybe stop bringing that up again. It was traumatizing to me as it is." The brunette visibly shuddered.
"But h-how did that even happen?"
"I don't know, and I don't want to know! Thank you!" Mayday screamed in a panicked voice, as she began to mutter to herself about topless mothers dancing on poles, to MJ's growing horror.
The odd moment would have continued if not for a third voice, one who seemed to be quite amused by Mayday and MJ's byplay, butted it with a laugh, "Oh you guys are a riot, aren't you?"
Mary Jane and Mayday looked to see who had interrupted them, only for the two to gape at the figure in front of them, who to their duel shock, would seem to be, well, another Mary Jane Watson.
What the f*ck?
"Your me?!" Mary Jane gasped.
"Quite the observant one, aren't you." Other MJ sarcastically replied.
Okay…I guess I deserved that. I mean, I knew it was possible, but I didn't expect to actually meet another version of me while I was here. You know what MJ, just roll with it.
Giving the other redhead the once over, Mary Jane noticed the other MJ was the same age as her, and was wearing red and blue, with a blue jacket which featured a red spider blazed on the chest, blue legging covered by long red heelless boots with white tips. Lastly, her long red hair, which was topped by headphones covering her ears Mary Jane noted, was exposed and not covered by the mask, which itself had miraculously disappeared from her face by itself.
Don't know how she did that, but that was both cool and disgusting.
Mayday meanwhile, standing next to her, glanced and the two of them and muttered, "Great…Now there are two of them…This is never not weird…"
Mary Jane raised an eyebrow, "Aren't most of the people here technically versions of your dad though?"
The other girl however had a pained grimace at the mention of her dad, before mumbling, "Yeah, but I quickly got used to those. I told you, I don't often meet different versions of my mom, considering that they're much less…common."
"Well, certainly, no other me's that have flirted with you, I would hope." Mary Jane snarked at her own expense, having finally rolled with the fact she was standing in front of another version of herself.
Mayday rolled her eyes and shook her head, before turning her attention over to the three people before them. Mary Jane followed her gaze, frowning.
Other MJ, well the one in red and blue at least, raised an eyebrow at them, "You two done now?"
Mayday and Mary Jane turned to look at each other, before looking back at the Other MJ. Mayday shrugged, "Yeah, I guess so. Mind uh, introducing yourself?"
Other MJ raised an eyebrow, "What? Don't know your own mother?"
Mayday rolled her eyes, "Har har…"
Other MJ grinned as she took off the headphones she was wearing, causing Mary Jane and Mayday to wince at the really loud music coming out, which MJ vaguely recognized as her band's signature song, 'Face it Tiger'. It was so loud though that MJ kept having to wince, but she was honestly thankful when the Other MJ began to lower the volume.
God, my head is ringing…and, huh, that is Face it Tiger. Though I thought Gwen said that the Mary Janes being a band wasn't a common thing in the multiverse or whatever? That it was usually only found in worlds where she was Spider-Woman.
"Why the hell did you have that so loud?" Mary Jane asked, a grimace overtaking her. A couple of nearby Spiders were also glaring at Other MJ's direction as they walked past, seemingly all in agreement. One Spider in a black suit was giving Other MJ a particularly venomous look.
The redhead shrugged, "You'd be shocked how much that has helped me to relax and think. Don't exactly need to worry about hearing correctly with this thing on on and plus, the music helps to keep Crimson out of my head, since for whatever reason despite it not being able to hurt it anymore, my singing annoys the hell out of it. So ultimately a win-win I guess."
"Crimson?" Mary Jane frowned, clearly wondering who that was.
Other MJ's face was unreadable for a moment, but Mary Jane could have sworn for just a second that it had shifted to an almost nasty look, one full of bitterness, but it was gone before Mary Jane could be sure. Either way, the Other MJ turned to her shoulder and began speaking, "Come on out Crimson. Other me wants to say hi."
Mary Jane gasped in horror as a red, blobish, thing, with sharp teeth and wicked eyes literally popped out from the Other MJ's shoulder, before it gave the two girls a toothy grin. Then the image was made worse when the thing actually spoke.
"Hi."
Mary Jane would have screamed if Mayday hadn't grabbed her, giving her a look. Around them, various other Spiders were giving them, or more specifically Other MJ, looks of fear and shock, some even backing away, other looking like they were ready to get into action at any moment. Mayday quickly gave those Spiders a look and they reluctantly scooted away.
Mayday gave the Other MJ a hard look, "That's the Carnage Symbiote."
"Ah ha! See? I told you we should have called ourselves Carnage."
Oh god! It's voice!
The voice, to Mary Jane's growing horror, was like her own, only made twisted and inhuman. Evil.
Other MJ however didn't seem to be all that concerned about the things voice, as she rolled her eyes and replied, "For the hundredth time, no, I'm not calling you Carnage."
"Aww…Your no fun."
Other MJ rolled her eyes.
Mary Jane though still looked on in complete horror, "W-what t-the f*ck is that thing?!"
Mayday looked on her in sympathy, "It's called a symbiote. Your Gwen, unless I'm not mistaken, has one that's similar. They're basically creatures that need a host to survive, so they bond with a host. Their pretty much Parasites if we're-"
"PARASITE?!"
Mary Jane stepped back, away from the Other MJ and the thing on her shoulder. Other MJ glared slightly at Mayday before she grabbed her phone and threateningly lifted it, with a finger over the volume up button, and the song 'Face it Tiger' ready to play once more. The symbiote growled, but carefully eyed MJ's phone, wary at being subjugated to listening to MJ sign again.
Who knew one day I'd see my singing used to threaten a freaking monster…
Things slowly began to calm down, and the redheaded singer began to slowly swallow her fear of the red creature that was now glaring at Mayday again. Mary Jane now vaguely remembered Gwen having talked about that new suit she got and having called it a symbiote, but honestly MJ hadn't payed much attention at the time, considering all the other stuff and revelations that had been occurring then.
Now part of her wished she had, so that she could have a better idea of what the hell the thing in front of her was.
Other MJ gave both Mary Jane and Mayday a grimace, ignoring the silently fuming Crimson on her shoulder, "Yeah, sorry about that. It doesn't like the P-word, as you can see."
Mary Jane quietly nodded while Mayday crossed her arms over her chest, the later speaking, "That thing…that thing is dangerous. I've had run ins with my universes Carnage and it wasn't pretty," shaking her head to herself, "You're not the first version of my mom who I've met who happens to be bonded to the Carnage Symbiote, but hers was just an extension of herself, as the symbiote didn't have a mind of its own anymore."
The mention of that another Mary Jane with a Carnage symbiote led to the nasty, bitter look MJ had sworn she had seen earlier return to the Other MJ face's, as the other girl clenched her fist, and quietly began to focus on her breathing.
I knew I hadn't imagined that.
Crimson though began to suddenly crackle, causing both Mary Jane and Mayday to startle.
"Oh ho ho…oh look another thing for you to be jealous about! Three strikes and you're out!"
The thing began to laugh loudly as the Other MJ's eyes blazed in anger, before she snapped at the red symbiote, "Shut it!"
"Oh, don't look at me. I'm not the one who gets all mad and bitter every time she looks at the girl," it nodded it's head toward Mary Jane, "who didn't get the honor of becoming my host," then it looked at Mayday, "or when she sees the little girl she'll never have with Petey-poo."
Other MJ looked thunderous, "You stupid little-" She looked moments away from grabbing the neck of the snake looking creature, "You know for a fact that I-I'm…I'm not still pining over Peter…I-I have a boyfriend…"
"Liar Liar, pants on fire! We both know you're not over him at all! And as for him," it spoke the last word with such venom, "you can do so much better than that-"
"YOU GOT TO FACE IT TIGER! FACE IT TIGER! YOU HIT THE JACKPOT!"
The loud screeching of the song 'Face it Tiger blared to life once more, this time coming from Mary Jane's own phone, which she held up at the Other MJ and Crimson, the later of whom seemed somewhat pained (not physically pained though, from what MJ could tell. It looked more like a annoyed kind of pain) by the sound of Mary Jane's singing. Mary Jane herself was wincing, but she ignored the volume of the song for just a moment, as the Other MJ took the hint and put her headphone on and began to play the song on her own phone. Mary Jane nodded and paused the song on her phone, as the red symbiote receded back into the Other MJ's shoulder.
For a moment, it was beautifully silent. Other MJ sagged her shoulders and mumbled a bit before she looked up at her dimensional counterpart.
"Thanks."
Mary Jane nodded, "No problem."
Other MJ was quiet for another moment, before speaking, "So uh…sorry about Crimson. It uh…it tends to get all moody like that after you use the P-Word."
"Yeah, I can tell."
Other MJ nodded, unsure of what to say, while the still silent Mayday looked between them with her arms crossed. Finally, Mayday gave a large sigh and rubbed her eyes, before turning to the Other MJ, "Why…why the hell are you still wearing that thing. It's dangerous and clearly you don't have the best relationship with the thing."
Other MJ shrugged, "Oh trust me, I tried, but the consensus seemed to be that I couldn't get it off without me dying as a result. Plus, our relationship, for lack of a better term, is not nearly as bad as it was two years ago when we first met. Hell, it's not even as bad as it was a year ago," the Other MJ looked down, "It's just…I'm just not in a good mood at the moment, for uh…personal reasons, and then you said the P-word, and well…trust me, Crimson always gets in a pissy mood if you use the P-word."
Mary Jane frowned, "How'd that thing even get on you?"
Other MJ looked on her, looking both lost and sad at the same time, "God…t-that's…. that's a long story…" She looked away, lost in thought, "Honestly I'd think it take over an hour to tell the story. If I wrote it all down, I think you'd have to write over a million words just to get it all down, but for now I'll just settle for the quick summary."
"See, in my world, I was in a band, the Mary Janes," Mary Jane stood up straighter at hearing her bands name, suddenly realizing the implications, "and unknown to me for a long time, my best friend, and our bands drummer, Gwen Stacy, had gotten bit by a radioactive spider and was secretly a superhero, Spider-Woman. There a lot more that came after, but something tells me your familiar with a lot of it." The symbiote host nodded in Mary Jane's direction.
"Peter Parker turned himself into the Lizard and everyone blamed Gwen for his death? Blind lawyer possessed by a demon who's a secret Kingpin of Crime?" the redhead asked.
Other MJ nodded, "Got it in one," Looking to the side, she continued, "For two years, nothing really changed much. Gwen was hunted by the cops because everyone thought she was guilty, and she kept missing band practice. Same shtick for two years, that is, until Peter Parker miraculously showed up again, only now he was suddenly calling himself Spider-Man and he claimed that he was from another world, one where it was still the 1930s. That familiar to you too other me?"
Mary Jane shook her head, "Recently a Peter Parker did come to our world, but he wasn't from the 1930s. Everything else though before that is."
The Other MJ blinked, tilting her head to the side, "Huh…"
She shook her head and kept speaking, "I never exactly tried to involve myself into what Gwen was doing, eventually though, it caught up to me. I got into an argument with Glory, and after I ran off, I got attacked in an alley by these bastards who wanted to rape me." Her look was dark, "Only thing was, as I was laying there, bleeding, Crimson found me. A few days before hand, it and it's original host, Cletus Kassady, had been," she paused for a second, seemingly searching for the right word, "…defeated," the Other MJ paused again, as the red in her suit rippled, and an uncomfortable look crossed her face. She casually thumbed over and pressed the volume up button on her phone before she continued, "by Gwen and Peter. It was by itself and in need of a host, and well, I guess I was convenient. I became Scarlet Spider and the rest is shall we say history."
Mary Jane looked at the Other MJ in confusion, "That's it?"
"What? Did you expect me to tell my whole life story? You asked for a summary, and I gave you a summary."
Mary Jane frowned, "It's just…It sounds like you skipped a bit at the end."
Other MJ laughed, "Of course I skipped stuff. There's a bit that happened that I'm not proud of. I won't deny it, but I don't care to drudge up memories of it, thank you very much."
She's hiding something. What exactly did she do…?
She never got to ask though, as Mayday, who had been silent up until now, finally spoke up, "You know, I think I might know her world actually."
Both Mary Jane Watson's looked at her in confusion, "You do?"
Mayday nodded, "Yeah, if I got the right world, then I actually got stuck in it for like a week once. It was before the Inheritors first started attacking us. You probably wouldn't know about it since I mostly fought alongside your Gwen. I remember her telling me a bit about her world, and she mentioned that a version of Noir lived in it, and that her Mary Jane was a hero called Scarlet Spider. She didn't exactly tell me you got your powers from the Carnage symbiote though," she frowned, "Anyways, I'm sure she would remember if I ever bump into her here. Trust me, it was a whole uh, thing."
Other MJ tilted her head, "Yeah, Gwen never mentioned any of that."
"Really? Not even once?"
"Nope…"
Mayday blinked, tilting her head to the side, "Huh…"
Shaking her head, the brunette daughter of Spider-Man muttered to herself, "Maybe I got the wrong universe then."
Turning to Mary Jane, Mayday waved a hand in the Other MJ's direction, "Well, assuming I'm not actually wrong about her world, then from what I understand, their world is basically an offshoot of your universe, Earth-65. Theirs is one those universes that tend to be kind of weird because they exist solely due to interference from other universes," Shaking her head, Mayday frowned, "From what I remember though, it doesn't technically have an official designation of it's yet at the moment. I think we were planning to just give it the designation Earth-165, but I'm not sure if we went through with that."
Mary Jane frowned, "Okay…" She looked over at the Other MJ in thought.
So, wait, her world like, split from mine and sh*t right? That means I could have become her or something?
Grabbing her head at the feelings of the beginnings of an incoming headache, one thought quickly came through Mary Jane's mind.
Gah! The Multiverse is too f*cking confusing.
Other MJ was frowning, looking at Mayday in scrutiny, "You know, now that you mention it, you do look familiar…"
Mayday brightened up, "So I was right! I mean, we did run into one another at one point, sort of. I never told you who I was though…I mean, I was too busy hiding from you…"
Other MJ distractedly nodded. She turned to Mary Jane and offhandedly said, "Unless I'm wrong, yes, it means your world and mine used to be one and the same until they split, I'm guessing probably when my Peter showed up."
Mary Jane looked at her oddly, "Does that thing let you read my mind? How'd you know what I was thinking?"
Other MJ snorted, "I'm you, aren't I? I'd like to think that'd mean that I have some insight into what exactly it is that you might be thinking."
"Right…"
Other MJ rolled her eyes.
Mayday gave her a look, "I'm not sure that's how that works though."
Other MJ shrugged, "I was right though, wasn't I?"
Mary Jane sighed and turned to Mayday, "You know she doing this on purpose rig-" Mary Jane never got to finished as a shout interrupted her and caught the attention of the three of them.
"Mom! Look! Look!" they looked up to see a little girl pointing at Mary Jane, "It's her! I told you I saw her!"
The girl let go of her a woman's hand and ran up to them, ignoring the shouts of her mother, grinning the entire way. It barely took Mary Jane a moment to realize it was the same little redheaded girl with pigtails she had seen earlier. Now said girl was now grinning up at both Mary Jane's and Mayday, excitement and glee in her eyes.
Arriving behind her was the girl's mother in question, who had finally caught up to and grabbed her daughters' hand. To Mary Jane's surprise, she saw that the girl's mother was an older, Mary Jane, who looked to being in her late thirties and was wearing a costume not too dissimilar from that of the average Spider-Man's like Peter, minus the fact that the blue was replaced with white. This older MJ seemed mightily amused, as she tightly held her daughters hand, so as to try preventing the girl from running off again to grab at Mayday and the two Mary Jane.
"And now there are three of them…Gah! I hate my luck." Mayday bemoaned.
Other MJ, well the one from before – Damn! This is so confusing now that there was a third MJ, she was just going to mentally relabel the MJ with the Carnage Symbiote as Scarlet MJ – anyways, Scarlet MJ went poker-faced at the little girl and her mother, her left-hand tightening into a fist.
"Mom! See? See? I was right!" the little girl exclaimed excitedly.
"Yes Annie, I can see that." The Older MJ nodded and gave the three of them a smile.
The little girl – Annie was it? – turned to them and chattered, "I knew I had saw mom, or well, I guess younger mom, so when I went to find mom though to show you to her, you were gone, and we had to find you, but it took so long since there are so many other Spiders here and not all of them are mom, but then I saw your hair –"
"Breathe Annie! Breathe!" Mary Jane said, shaking the girl's shoulder.
"Jesus kid, don't you know how to use periods?" Scarlet MJ sarcastically asked, "I felt like I was listening to Hermione Potter speak on the Hogwarts Express from those Harry Granger movies."
Annie gave her a weird look, "You mean Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter movies."
"No, I meant Hermione Potter-"
"It's Hermione Granger."
"No, it isn't!"
"Yes, it is!"
"Hey!" Mary Jane snapped at Scarlet MJ, "What are you doing? She's like eight, how old are you? And since when are you a fan of those movies?"
I'm certainly not.
Scarlet MJ mumbled, "I watched them with Gwen and Cindy once a few months after I first got Crimson. I got addicted…" Then she slapped her own forehead, "And I totally forgot that different worlds often have differently named movies, shows, and books."
Annie took that as a hint that she was right and proudly grinned up at Scarlet MJ, before sticking out her tongue at her. Her mother meanwhile was quietly laughing in the background.
Mayday meanwhile ignored the two younger Mary Janes, as she was looking at the new pair, slightly stiffly, with the same uncomfortableness from when she had first met Mary Jane having now slightly returned. She cleared her throat, and addressed the mother and daughter pair, "Your uh, your Spinneret right? Well I mean, I know your Mary Jane Watson, but your hero name is Spinneret right? And this is your daughter Annie, otherwise known as Spiderling?"
The Older MJ blinked, tilting her head to the side, "Huh…"
She frowned in confusion, "How do you-"
"I've met you and your daughter before," Mayday interrupted, "uh, older versions of you that is. From a different universe." Looking down on the redheaded girl, "That Annie was a teenager. We uh, fought alongside each other."
The Older MJ, or it seemed adept to call her Spinneret, seemed unsure how to respond, except to say, "Ok…"
Scarlet MJ, who was looking between Mayday and Spinneret decided to butt in, "Wait, hold on a second. You said her hero name is Spinneret?"
Mayday looked confused by the question but nodded.
Scarlet MJ snorted and began to laugh quietly to herself. The other four gave her odd looks, but the symbiote host shook her head and nodded to Mayday, "Sorry, Sorry. Don't mind me. Continue whatever it is you were saying."
Annie tilted her head to Mary Jane, and gave a stage whisper, like she was telling some great secret, "She's weird." Mary Jane covered a laugh with a cough while Scarlet MJ, who had heard (Annie hadn't exactly been subtle or that quiet), glared at them both.
Kind of weird to laugh at the expense of another me, but what are you going to do.
Spinneret gave a resigned sigh and bemused smile at her daughter's antics, before turning to Mayday.
"Sorry, I never got your name?"
Mayday's eye's widened, and she looked uncertain of what to say, glancing at both younger Mary Janes and Annie. She gulped and looked at Spinneret, and finally stuttered out, "M-My name…" she took a deep breath, "my…m-my name is Mayday...I-I mean, May Parker… and m-my…" The brunette then looked down, unable to gaze at the suddenly wide and tearful eyes of her mother counterpart, "…m-my parents were Peter and M-Mary Jane Parker."
Mary Jane and Scarlet MJ looked at each other in confusion, wondering what was going on, while the little red head girl looked at Mayday like she was some kind of odd specimen.
Spinneret's hand reached up and softly stroked Mayday's face, staring and examining every detail of the brunette Spider's face. Her eyes were intensely watery as she studied Mayday's features.
"It's funny," a sobbing laugh came from her, "you look just like I always imagined you would have look like i-if…if…"
Spinneret closed her eyes, and separated her hand from Mayday's cheek, before she moved to leave. The brunette however shook her head and pulled Spinneret into a hug. It was as she was watching the sobs emanate out of Spinneret that Mary Jane finally understood what exactly it was that had happened, as she and Scarlet MJ quietly shared a look of dawning understanding with each other.
Damn…she must have lost her Mayday…
Truth be told, Mary Jane had herself never given much thought to having kids. It was always something that she thought she'd have when she eventually found someone and got married of course, but it was never something she particularly gave more than a brief second thought to. Yet now, not only was she confronted with two girls whom were technically her daughter, or at least the daughters of other versions of her, but now she also had to deal with the idea of what it would be like to actually lose one of those kids, which frankly Mary Jane had never considered something that could ever happen to her.
Yet sadly enough it seems to have happened to the older version of herself that now stood before her, and that bothered Mary Jane more than she would admit. Looking over at Scarlet MJ, Mary Jane could see that the same thoughts must have been running in her head, as she loosed her fist, and looked on in sympathy toward their mutual older counterpart. Said older version of her self's sobs now began receding into small hiccups, as she slowly disentangled from Mayday, and quietly wiped a final tear from her eye.
A short silence enveloped the three Mary Janes and the lone Mayday, while Annie continued to look at her mother and interdimensional sister in confusion.
"I don't get it…" said Annie, a confused frown on her face. Mary Jane looked at the girl sadly while Scarlet MJ looked away. With a grieving look on her face, Spinneret knelt down before the little girl and began to quietly explain, Mayday giving the girl an almost remorseful look. Annie looked between her mother and Mayday as Spinneret quietly explained the fate of her world's Mayday, of the older sister she almost had. A subdued Annie stayed quiet even after her mother finished explaining, giving only a silent nod.
The silence continued for moments, no one sure of what exactly to say, before Scarlet MJ finally broke the tension, looking at Mary Jane, "So um…how are the Mary Janes doing in your world?"
Mary Jane looked startled at the question, before answering, "Uh, we're doing good. We uh, gained a bit of popularity recently, and Face it Tiger recently entered the top 10 music charts."
Scarlet MJ looked a bit stunned, "Wait…really?"
Mary Jane scratched the back of her head, looking down and gloomy for a split second, "Yeah, my Gwen's identity got exposed more than about a year ago. So, the band's currently uh, riding the waves of her new fame, as you might say…"
Spinneret meaning was looking at the two in confusion, muttering to herself out loud, "Gwen's identity? Band?"
They both looked at Spinneret, before Scarlet MJ answered, "In our world, a friend of ours, Gwen Stacy, is Spider-Woman, and together we're in a rock band called the Mary Janes, named after yours truly. Other MJ here," Scarlet MJ nodded toward Mary Jane, "is in the same boat."
Mary Jane titled her head, "I'm guessing that's not the case in your world though…?"
Spinneret shook her head, her long flowing locks of red hair shaking with the movement, "Nope. My husband Peter is Spider-Man, while G-Gwen is…" she took a breath, "Gwen is dead…" the two younger Mary Jane's reeled back at the word's while Spinneret softly finished, "She…She was my friend."
G-Gwen's…her Gwen is dead?
Mayday gave a sad nod, "Unfortunately that seems to commonly be the case in the multiverse."
Spinneret looked pained at the words while Scarlet MJ and Mary Jane gave each other shocked look's, neither knowing what exactly to say in response.
Yeah, Gwen never mentioned that little bit…
Gwen wasn't exactly sure how to process the idea of Gwen Stacy, her friend, being dead, let alone the idea that it was a common occurrence in the multiverse. Mary Jane wondered if that was why Peter and her getting together seemed so common in the multiverse, though she couldn't imagine all those Gwen's dying so often for that to be the case.
I suppose now's suddenly the time for shocking truth's I wasn't expecting or had given much thought too.
Spinneret gave Mary Jane and Scarlet MJ a chance to process the idea of Gwen's death before she continued her response to the earlier question, "As for being in a band… well, I can say I never was part of that. I mean, I did do a bit of modeling and some work as an actress sure, but I definitely didn't join any bands."
Mary Jane was taken aback, "Wait, you were a model?"
The acting part doesn't entirely surprise me considering the acting classes I used to go to, so it kind of makes sense I might have pursued that more in another world, but where did the modeling come from?
Spinneret nodded, "Yeah, when I was a lot younger. Way before Annie was even born." The older redhead gave one of the younger redheads a look, "Though you don't seem all that surprised compared to her?"
Scarlet MJ shook her head, "Nope. Did some modeling myself a while back." She grimaced, "Wasn't a great point in my life, I'll admit. The guy who I was working for, Rodrick Kingsley," Mayday and Spinneret both grimaced and gave Scarlet MJ sympathetic looks, "turned out to be a supervillain. Plus, I ended up having to fight against two of my fellow models who went on to join my rogue's gallery."
"Can't say I remember having to fight other models, but I I'm not surprised about Kingsley being a d*ck in another world as well."
Mary Jane looked between them, "I'm guessing this Kingsley is someone to watch out for?"
Scarlet MJ laughed, "Oh you have no idea…"
Mayday nodded with a shudder, "Agreed."
Mary Jane looked at Mayday, tilting her head, "You worked for this Kingsley a**hole as a model too?"
"Me?" Mayday shook her head, "No, thankfully not. But I have fought the guy before and he's a real piece of work. As for modeling, well while I've gotten a few offers before, I've never taken them because of well…" she gestured to the Spider suit she was wearing.
Spinneret studied her a bit, "You should give it a thought. You've certainly got the looks for it."
Mayday turned a bit red and stuttered out a thanks.
Mary Jane meanwhile decided it might be best to see if she could hear more about this Kingsley fella. The name, now that she thought about it, seemed to be worriedly familiar. Opening her mouth to speak, "So this Kingsley, what can you -" Mary Jane stopped though and turned her head in confusion at the sudden out of place noise of a distance, angry sounding car horn.
That wasn't the Spider-Buggie Betty was bothering, was it? Please don't be the Spider-Buggie.
Mary Jane wasn't entirely sure what to do but was still prepared to put it out of her head and continue speaking, when she heard angry yelling. This disturbance was followed by a Peter Parker wearing only a monocle and old timey underwear shorts running through the crowd of Spider people, and then past them.
Mayday and the three Mary Janes just raised an eyebrow while Annie blinked, tilting her head to the side, "Huh…" That was, Mary Jane realized, the first word the suddenly quiet little girl had spoken since she had found out about the death of her world's Mayday Parker as a baby.
From where the second undies Spider-Man Mary Jane had seen today had run through came a group of furious Spider-people. One of them, who looked like the female Asian spider wearing black and white that MJ had seen being chatted at by the silvery armored Spider-Man minus the hair, which was much longer, asked, "Did you see where he-"
The five of them pointed in the direction the naked Spider guy had gone, to which the group of angry Spiders followed, briefly giving them thanks as they went, though not before the Asian Spider who had spoken earlier and a short female spider in black and yellow with claws coming out of her hands both gave Scarlet MJ a nod, to which the redhead responded back in kind.
I guess they must be from Scarlet MJ's world. Never met them in my world though, and that younger one looks like she could be Annie's age.
Mayday looked up at the roof, looking as though she was rethinking her life, "It's Tuesday, isn't it? Why do these things always happen on Tuesday…?"
Mary Jane raised an eyebrow, "Is this kind of thing…normal?"
Mayday gave a crazed, strangled laugh, "Oh you have no idea…" she shook her head, "Anyways, what were you saying again?"
"You know what? Never mind."
This Kingsley guy sounds like a massive ass, but whatever. Most of the supervillains Gwen fights tend to be total pushovers, so I doubt she'd have anything to worry about. Just got to avoid any offers of modeling for this guy is all.
Annie, still looking in the direction from where the Spider-Man in undies and the angry mob had ran to, scrunched up her face in worry, "I hope that other younger daddy will be alright."
Scarlet MJ shrugged, "I'm sure he'll be fine squirt. Curious what he did though to make them all angry though?"
Mayday hand went to her chin as she gave the question consideration, "I'm not sure. I recognized a few of the Spiders there like the Spider-Man of Earth-96282 and the one from Earth-32323 and I've never seen them that angry."
Scarlet MJ tilted her head, "Can't entirely see Cindy acting like that either frankly. Laura yeah, but not Cindy. At least, not without good reason."
Mayday sighed, shaking her head, "Honestly, while I'll admit to being curious, we're really not going to get anywhere speculating unless someone wants to go and ask," she looked around to see no volunteers, "so there's no point in speculating."
None of them knew what to say after that, realizing that Mayday was right. Deciding it was best to change the subject, Mary Jane turned to Spinneret, "So, earlier you mentioned your Peter was Spider-Man right? You never mentioned it, but how exactly did you get your powers anyhow?"
I'm not jealous, just curious…
Spinneret looked a bit sheepish, "Oh! I suppose I never did." She proceeded to tell them, with various input by Annie, the story of the villain Regent, how he had captured various heroes and villains and stole their powers and abilities, and how he had ultimately been stopped due to the efforts of herself, her daughter, and her husband, with Spinneret eventually using the same tech to share her husband's powers and fight crime alongside him and their daughter.
Mary Jane had to admit; she did find her counterpart's story interesting. Glancing at Scarlet MJ and Mayday, she noted the later was looking on in interest (MJ guessed the older Annie she mentioned that she fought alongside with had never told her the story), while the former seemed was back to tightening her left-hand and looking stone faced.
Mary Jane sighed at that, somehow not surprised that Scarlet MJ wasn't taking it well.
Honestly, I'd probably start acting a bit like a jealous b*tch too if I had that Crimson Carnage whatever it's called thing stuck in me and I then had to stand and hear the story of another version of myself be everything I want to be all in one package.
"You alright there MJ?" a voice behind the distracted Mary Jane asked, causing her to jump in fright. She twisted around, to see it was Gwen, an amused look crossing her features. Behind the blonde stood the awkward form of Peter Parker, who gave MJ an uncertain smile, which MJ partially found to be quite fake.
Guess he still hasn't gotten over the awkwardness from the end of our date.
Gwen's smirk however shifted into a confused frown, "Uh MJ? Why are there three of you?"
Mary Jane raised an eyebrow, "Why do you think?"
Gwen looked confused at first by the question, before she remembered, "Oh right! I guess they must be other versions of you then? You know, I think I remember fighting along side another you when we fought the Inheritors a second time, but I never got the chance to chat with her."
"Right… You done with whatever it is you needed to do?"
Gwen nodded, "Yup. You ready to go?"
Mary Jane nodded, "Let me just say goodbye and I'll be meet you by where we came in."
Gwen agreed, before she and Peter went on their way. Mary Jane watched them go, before she turned to the other two MJ's as well as Annie and Mayday.
"So uh, that was my Gwen…" she gave them all a nod, "I guess that mean's I best start saying goodbye."
Annie looked up at her, looking almost thunderstruck, "W-What! You leaving?! You can't leave yet!"
Scarlet MJ snarked down at the girl, "I think you'll find she very well can." Mary Jane saw that she wasn't even bothering to hide the jealousy and scorn in her tone, leading to Spinneret to frown at Scarlet MJ.
Mary Jane shook her head at Scarlet MJ, "Hey, look I get all that you're a little jealous of -"
"I AM NOT JEALOUS!"
Spinneret looked on in confusion, before Mayday leaned in to whisper in her ear. Mary Jane watched as the older redhead's eye's widened and she looked at Scarlet MJ, seemingly in a new light. It was, Mary Jane noted, both a look of understanding and sympathy, but tinted with a shadow of fear.
I guess she finally knows about Crimson then…
Spinneret quietly grabbed her daughters' hand, and pushed Annie behind her, shielding her with her body as she faced Scarlet MJ.
"Mary Jane, you might be surprised, but part of me understands what your going through. For years, I had to watch as my husband risked his life to save others, forever yearning to be able to join him. Yet when the day finally came, and I was able to fight alongside him, I unintentionally became a weakness for him." Spinneret gave a sigh, lost in the memories of her past, "Whenever I fought alongside Peter, I ended up draining his powers, leaving him vulnerable."
Spinneret looked away, "So one day, I accepted help from someone who I thought was a friend, to try and counteract the drain my suit had on my husband's power. Instead, I ended up the host to the Venom symbiote, which had belonged to an enemy of my husbands."
Mayday's breath went sharp at that, while Mary Jane looked at her in confusion. The brunette explained to Mary Jane and Scarlet MJ, "It's the symbiote your Gwen wears, the one she calls Webster. It some world's, like yours, it's a force for good, but in most others…" She left the implication, which both Mary Jane and Scarlet MJ understood.
In most worlds, this Venom symbiote isn't a good guy.
Mary Jane had seen her Gwen and the symbiote she was wearing in action, and she shuttered at the idea of her ever having to fight someone wearing it.
Spinneret looked to Scarlet MJ, continuing, "I know what wearing a symbiote who wishes more harm on you than good is like. How it can act as a voice in your head, speaking to you the most terrible things and making you think and do things you'd never imagine doing. It's not a pleasant feeling let me tell you, and it took shear willpower on my part to finally escape it's grasp." She shook her head, "I'm sorry for what you probably have had to go through, considering I know for a fact that the Carnage symbiote is even more vile and evil than Venom ever was. It wouldn't shock me if that thing has forced you to commit untold amounts of murder and carnage to sate it's bloodlust," Scarlet MJ's breath went sharp at that.
So that's what she was hiding earlier…
Spinneret nodded, seeing that she had been right on the money, "Mayday told me you said things have gotten better for you since you put that thing on, maybe they have, maybe they haven't. Ultimately that's for you to decide. But let me tell you, if you let that thing consume you, let what it's done to you take over, that's ultimately on you. You don't have to be defined by that thing, not if you don't choose to be."
With that Spinneret tightened her grip on her daughters' hand, and said her farewells to Mayday, Mary Jane, and even the silent Scarlet MJ, before she dragged her daughter away, despite the girl's pleading to stay. Scarlet MJ, still silent, stared off at the direction Spinneret had gone.
"I'm sorry…" she mumbled, mostly to herself. Mayday put a hand on her shoulder, but Scarlet MJ shook it off, and quietly said, "I'm uh…I-I'm going to go look for my G-Gwen and P-Peter. So uh, see you…" With that, she quickly took over, leaving Mary Jane and Mayday to look on sadly in her direction.
"You think she'll be fine?" Mary Jane asked her interdimensional daughter.
Mayday nodded, "Yeah, I think so. Just in case, I think I'll drop in her world to check up on her. I've been meaning to visit her Gwen anyways, to catch up."
Mary Jane nodded, "That's good…" she paused, unsure what to say, before looking up at the brunette, "So I guess I'll be seeing you then?"
Mayday gave her a side glance and nodded, "Sure. I'll try and meet up with you next time I visit your world."
Mary Jane nodded and wished her a final goodbye, before she scrambled on to the hallway they had entered from. Her thoughts were whirling in her head, as the past conversation with her two counterparts and two interdimensional daughters filled her head. Seeing both Mayday and Annie had certainly been weird, and Mary Jane didn't doubt it would make some of her interactions with Peter further awkward. Spinneret, the older version of Mary Jane, while unusual, had certainly been easier to accept than that other Mary Jane, Scarlet MJ.
God, I hope I never become like that. I feel bad for her and sh*t, but I definitely don't want to be like her.
Shaking her head, Mary Jane finally arrived to find Gwen, standing by the doorway, grimacing at something inside the hallway to where they had first arrived. From this angle MJ couldn't see, but she could certainly hear it, and it was pretty loud. Looking over Gwencent's shoulder to see what the blonde was frowning at, MJ had to do a double take at the strange scene before her.
What the f*cking hell?
It was perhaps one of the most chaotic scenes Mary Jane had ever witnessed, consisting of a horrendously drunk half-naked Glory wielding a Spider-Man themed bat, who was fighting alongside the crazed undies wearing Peter from earlier (which MJ, with better clarity, now realized was the Steampunk Spider-Man whom she had talked when she was with Glory), against a mob of angry Spider people. Caesarion, wearing nothing but pieces of his chest armor, looked to equally as drunk as Glory and the Steampunk Spider, was wielding two swords and stabbing at any Spider that came at him.
Behind him was Betty, who was by some miracle somehow managing to hold her own while she was wrestling with the six-armed Spider-Man that MJ had noticed earlier. Next to them was the British Spider-Buggie, who was flashing his lights, honking, and screaming various obscurities as Betty, Glory, and Caesarion. A few other Spiders, including one dressed as a punk and another who had the number five on the spider symbol on his chest, all whom MJ didn't recognize seeing earlier, seemed to have sided with her two friends and the two half-naked historical Spiders in fighting the angry Spider mob.
While this was all going on, the 1602 Spider-Man was yelling out Shakespeare quotes at everyone and anyone who happened to pass by.
Did…Did Glory and Betty start a riot?
"W-What the fuck is going on?!" Mary Jane gasped in horror.
Gwen shrugged, looking completely helpless. MJ turned to her, "Aren't we going to help them?"
"You don't think we've already tried?" Gwen nodded at Peter, who was now sporting a black eye. He was trying to cover it with an icepack and wincing. Next to him were two other unmasked Spider-Men, who both looked pained and seemed to be taking a moment to recover. Mary Jane thought neither of them looked like the Peter Parker's she was familiar with.
"Thank god for having a healing factor, right?" Peter said, before he winced again.
Mary Jane rubbed her eyes, debating whether or not it might be safe to go back to Mayday, Annie, and the other versions of her. She finally turned to Gwen, "You sure you don't know what's going on?"
Gwen scratched her head, "Not much. All I know is from what the Spider-Buggie is screaming at between the creative curse words. Something about Betty molesting him and Glory trying to have a threesome in his back seats."
Wait Glory tried to what?! Why would-Oh god! That stinking wine she and those two Spiders were drinking! F*ck! How strong was that stuff?!
Mary Jane waved her hand at the horrific scene, "A-And the other pissed off Spiders?"
Gwen shrugged, not knowing the answer.
The five of them were silent for a for a few moments afterward, just watching the chaos unfold before them, before Mary Jane hand enough and finally burst into laughter. Eventually Peter and Gwen joined in, followed by the two other Spider-Men, tears streaming down their eyes as they watch the spectacle before them. Mary Jane whipped the tears from her, "We are never letting them live this down, are we?"
Gwen grinned, watching as the usually mature Glory was forcibly disarmed by a pissed off Spider-Man with a large white spider symbol and another Spider-Man wearing red and black, and shook her head, "No…. No, we are not."
Let's see Glory try to pull of being the band's mature team mom now! Oh I'm definitely going to wave this over her head forever.
One of the unmasked Spider-Man's kneeling next to Peter, who MJ thought looked more like the guy from Seabiscut than Peter, looked to Gwen, "You know, their probably going to ban you from bringing your friends again."
Another grimace covered Gwen's features, before she sighed. Suddenly, the five of them saw Glory get her bat back and aimed the bat at the Spider-Man in red and black's – they all winced.
Oh, I think I felt that from here.
"Yeah, we're totally getting banned from here." Mary Jane said, with a wince. The three Spider-Men next to her looked on in pained sympathy for their fellow Spider-Man.
"I might be able to still be allowed to bring you since you haven't done anything," Gwen said with a shake of her head, "but I'm definitely not going to be allowed to bring Glory and Betty again."
MJ nodded, not surprised, seeing as Glory was busy beating the Spider-Man with the white symbol repeatedly with a bat while Betty charged at the Spider-Buggie, roaring, "I WILL HAVE HIM! I WILL HAVE HIM!"
Jesus, don't these Spider people have Spider-Sense like Gwen does or something? At this rate, Glory and Betty look like they could give all of Gwen's villains a run for their money.
Gwen, looking helpless, changed the conversation as she turned to MJ, "So what'd you think? Of everything else I mean?"
Mary Jane shrugged, a grin on her lips, "I had fun. Though that reminds me, it seems you conveniently forgot to tell me a little important fact about Mayday…"
"W-What about Mayday?"
MJ gave her a look, "Oh I don't know, what was the number she said again? Eighty to ninety percent of all Peter Parkers end up with Mar-"
Gwen raised her hands in surrender, "Okay, okay! I may have forgotten to mention a few details. I was going to through! Eh, eventually."
"Suuuure you were Spider-Gwen, sure you were."
"Hey! To be fair, I'm dead in most universes. You win Peter by default!" One of the unmasked Spider-Men, who MJ thought looked like the guy from that Headbook movie, looked somber at the mention of the deaths of Other Gwen Stacy's.
Okay, what is it with these two alternate Peter's looking like actors from movies I've watched?
The redhead shook her head at Gwen, "That doesn't make it bette-"
Mary Jane never got to finish as the two were suddenly startled though when a Spider-Woman in black and white flew and crashed into a wall, not far from them by a Spider-Man with one eye, before he was immediately backflipped by another Spider-Woman, this one with long brown hair and wearing red and white. Said Spider-Woman was then immediately charged at by a bat wielding drunk Glory while the battered Spider-Man with the white symbol seemed like he was refusing to give up as he limped after her.
Mary Jane gave Gwen and Peter a sidelong glance, a grin twisting her features, "Hey, you know if they got any popcorn here by any chance?"
This is mostly for fun, and to help me a bit in getting back to the feeling of writing, as I haven't written much in a while. That and to get a feel for writing Mayday Parker (who shows up in this story), since I'm thinking of writing a Mayday and Annie Parker time travel adventure story.
So, with that, I guess I can only say, enjoy.
***
Three MJ's and Two Babies – A Two Spiders on a Web/Madhouse Blues Omake
By Nerdman3000
By Nerdman3000
Mary Jane Watson (technically of Earth-65, not that she knew it) couldn't deny it to herself anymore, this whole place was completely unreal. Don't get her wrong, sure, she might have grown used to the insane fact that her best friend, and one of her bandmates, Gwen Stacy, was a frickin' Superhero who could stick to walls and swing around the city. But all this? Other dimensions filled to the brim with alternate Spider people who coincidentally were like 90% made up of different versions of Peter Parker of all people? With the rest filled with versions of Gwen, and some dude named Miles?
That was a whole other level of weirdness.
Come on Mary Jane. Your best friend can literally crawl on walls and you went out on a date with a guy from a different world. Hold yourself together girl and remember to act natural.
Closing her eyes, MJ shook her head a bit and sighed, before opening them again, as she looked around, resolving herself to move away from, well, whatever it was that Betty was chatting with the talking Spider-Buggie about (and god, wasn't that weird to see, let alone think about), and maybe try to find Glory or Gwen. Moving off the talking car she was leaning on, MJ gazed down at Betty, who was almost hugging the Spider-Buggie, while Murderface sat licking himself next to her, and forced a well-trained easygoing grin on her face.
"Hey Bets? I'm going to look for Gwencent and Glory. You okay here?"
Betty paused to blink up at her from behind her glasses, before she half-distractedly nodded and turned her attention back to the talking car, who from the sound of his British accent, was getting increasingly alarmed by the fact he was being aggressively accosted by the Mary Janes lead guitarist, who was at that very moment attempting and failing to convince the car to return with them back to their world.
Surprising as it may sound, the talking British Spider car wasn't the strangest thing Mary Jane had seen today.
In fact, Mary Jane had already so far seen a dude (another Peter she was guessing by the suit which was similar to the one she previously went on a date with) with six arms, a man dressed up as a weird mix between a whitewashed genderbent Captain America and Spider-Man, a man in a blue suit with the letter four on his chest wearing a brown paper bag on his head, two Spider-Pig's talking to a Spider-Cat, a fat dude in a Spider suit with the words 'Peter Parker: Spider-Man' blazed on his chest, and a Spider-Man wearing nothing but a mask and underwear. And those few themselves were just the ones she was looking directly at right now.
Perhaps if it were anyone else, this would be the point right where they'd have a mental breakdown of some kind, after seeing all the insanity which was currently happening right before her eyes. MJ herself would be lying if she said that the current situation wasn't freaking her out just the tiniest bit, because it almost certainly was. Just because Mary Jane had gotten used to the idea Gwen being Spider-Woman didn't mean she suddenly immune to realizing the craziness of this stuff. After all, she had had plenty of time before she gotten confirmation that Gwen was Spider-Woman to process the fact, what with her heavily suspecting Gwen's secret identity beforehand. Now though?
Now it was honestly a wonder Mary Jane was even able to hide how much everything she was currently seeing was freaking her out as well as she was. It was times like these that she thanked god for all those acting classes her mom used to take her to as a little kid. They had admittedly had partially been in order to get away from her dad, but Mary Jane had grown to love them. Sure, Mary Jane had always preferred the singing roles (she had especially loved playing Ariel in the play for The Little Mermaid), but it wasn't like those other acting lessons hadn't been darn useful, as the past few months and especially today had been showing.
This whole insanity she was in right now certainly was not at all what she expected to be seeing when she woke up this morning, though then again though, Mary Jane had been having a weird week, so it shouldn't surprise her.
"Weird week? That's an understatement…" Mary Jane muttered to herself. "Hell, it's been a weird couple of months…"
She snorted quietly, shaking her head as she wove her way through the crowd of Spider people, passing a long haired brunette in a red suit with a white spider symbol who was chatting with a dude who oddly enough was dressed like her Halloween costume from two years ago, and a Spider-Man in silvery armor who was trying to chat up a Asian woman dressed in white and black. Behind them, stood a white-haired lady dressed in a black catsuit that left far too much ample amount of cleavage and whose gimmick seemed to be a cross between spiders and cats. Said cat spider lady was at present talking to a Spider-Man who was for some reason also wearing a long red cape. Snippets of their conversations fluttered through to her ears as she walked by.
"-see, I'm actually a female clone of Pete-"
"-a clone huh? Know the feelin-"
"-yeah, I got a whole company and everything-"
"-uhh…please don't talk to me-"
"-going to lie, that cape looks perrrrfectly ridiculous on yo-"
"-yeah, yeah, real thanks there Felica-"
Mary Jane though mostly tried to tune them all out, deciding it was for the best she ignored them as much as possible. The more she separated herself from the craziness around her, the better. Stopping to stand on her toes a bit, MJ tried to see if she could spot Glory and Gwen, well, her Gwen at least. God knows it would be hard to tell her apart from the other Gwen's in this place if her Gwen hadn't decided to leave off the mask and wear that headband Betty got her for Christmas while Gwen was in prison, which MJ knew for a fact the blonde drummer hated (not that Gwencent would ever say anything).
While Mary Jane did see a few Gwen's, she was disappointed to find that none of the ones she saw were unmasked and wearing Betty's gift, so sadly no cigar. She did however finally spot Glory, who was casually sipping something from a cup, as she sat surrounded by a couple of weirdly dressed Spider's.
As Mary Jane approached, she saw that there were four of them to be exact, surrounding Glory as she practically interrogated them. One Spider-Man, who was strangely wearing a monocle, looked like he was from a Steampunk world, with his wrist holding some kind of mechanical rope dart device, while he smoked a small pipe from the opening in his mask. Next to him was another Shakespeare looking Spider-Man, dressed like he was from the 1600s, while behind him stood a Spider-Man dressed in old Ancient Greek or Roman armor. By his feet sat some big ancient Greek looking vases with art of warriors fighting lions, from which he refilled a simple cup of what MJ guessed was wine.
God, I can smell that stuff from here!
Of the bunch, the only normal looking Spider-Man seemed to be the one sitting at Glory's right. His suit was not unlike the Peter MJ had come to know the past few weeks, minus the black lines on her Peter's suit and the fact this Spider-Man's web wings seemed to be permanently extended.
Glory, MJ saw, was currently directly asking that normal looking Spider-Man questions between sips of whatever it was she was drinking (was she drinking that wine?), "So wait, kids in the 60's actually used to hang out in candy stores?"
"Of course, where else would they get together?"
Glory blinked in astonishment, "Wow… That's so weird…" She than turned and saw the approaching Mary Jane, her eyes lighting up.
"MJ!"
The four Spiders turned to her, as did a couple of other spiders in the vicinity, such as one spider, who seemed to be a ten-year-old redheaded girl in pigtails and blue kiddy armor, who had a wide-eyed gaping look as she spotted MJ, before sprinting away.
Glory turned toward the four Spiders, waving her hand in Mary Jane's direction, "Right, sorry about that. Allow me to introduce one of my best friends, Mary Jane Watson. Mary Jane, meet Peter Parker, the Spider-Man of 1962," pointing to the normal looking Spider-Man, who's white eyes had gone comically wide, before turning to the 1600s looking Spider-Man, "Peter Parquagh, the Spider of 1602," then she pointed at the Steampunk looking Spider, "Peter Parker, the Spider-Man of 1889," and at last pointing to the ancient armor looking Spider, "and last, but not least, Ptolemy blah blah blah, all you need to know is that he's more commonly known as Caesarion, the Aranea of Rome, from 30 BC."
Glory leaned over to MJ, as if to whisper some exciting secret in her ear as she nodded in the direction of the armored Spider, "No shit by the way, but his parents are actually Cleopatra and Julius Caesar."
Mary Jane blinked at the four Spider-Men, completely unsure of what to say. Honestly, she shouldn't be surprised to see that Glory had gravitated towards the history Spider's, knowing her. While Glory didn't advertise the fact all that often, Mary Jane knew Glory was privately actually quite the history buff and fan, so MJ wasn't completely shocked to see that the other girl was taking an interest in meeting Spiders from other time periods.
Still, that introduction didn't exactly leave much room for a conversation starter. Thankfully though, MJ didn't have to worry all that much as the one who broke the tension would in fact be the still wide-eyed normal Spider-Man stared at her, who finally stuttered out, "Y-your M-Mary Jade Watson? Anna Watson's niece?"
Mary Jane looked down at him, confused, "Uh, yeah. You know my aunt?"
He looked down, mumbling, "Y-yeah. Anna Watson in my world is my neighbor. She and Aunt May have been trying to get me together with her niece."
Mary Jane could tell he was embarrassed. If she had to take a guess, he had probably tried to avoid meeting with the her from his world. She probably would have done the same if her mom tried to get her together or introduce her to some boy.
Patting his shoulder, Mary Jane comforted him, "Well Tiger, while I don't know what that other me is like, I think if you give her a chance, you might just hit the Jackpot."
The Steampunk Spider-Man nodded, a puff of smoke coming out of his pipe, "Well said Lady Watson."
Next to him, Caesarion crossed his arms and said something in a language MJ didn't understand. The Steampunk Spider-Man responded back in the same language, Latin MJ was guessing, leading to Caesarion giving a short reply and nodding. The Steampunk Spider-Man turned to them, clearing his throat, "It would seem that young Caesarion is also in complete agreement."
Mary Jane tilted her head, "Were you translating for him in Latin or something?"
The Steampunk Spider-Man shook his head, "Ah, I see you caught the language? Are you perhaps familiar with it much? As you your question, no I'm afraid. Young Caesarion was simply asking for clarification on some of the words you said." Mary Jane didn't exactly know how to respond to that, so she just nodded, though Glory looked at the British Spider strangely, "Wait…he understands English?! I thought you said he couldn't speak it?"
The Steampunk Spider-Man looked down on her, and sniffed, before he shook his head, "No… well, at least not completely. I have lately been attempting to teach him English you see, and though he had made remarkable strides in understanding the language when it is spoken, I'm afraid he has had difficulty when it concerns actually speaking it. I am of course endeavoring to correct this."
Glory then looked at Caesarion, almost salivating, as though some new opportunity just arose on her doorstep. Glory, MJ thought, probably hadn't been happy at the fact that the Steampunk Spider-Man would have to translate everything, so she was do doubt thrilled that it had just gotten easier. MJ honestly dreaded to know what Glory was going to start asking the Roman Spider, immediately feeling bad for the poor guy. Still, MJ stuck around for a few minutes, just listening to all of Glory's questions to the Victorian and Roman Spider-Men (the 60's Spider-Man and 1602 Spider-Man had both eventually left for newer pastures), before at the corner of MJ's eye, she caught her Gwen, wearing that ridiculous spikey headband, as she was talking to some female Spider, who was unmasked. Quickly giving Glory and the two Spider-Men a nod and wishing her goodbyes, Mary Jane made her way to Gwen and the Spider-Girl she was with.
To both Mary Jane's surprise and amusement, she saw that the two women were actually hugging each other. Or rather, the other spider was hugging Gwen and Gwen was returning the gesture. As the two let go, MJ saw that the other girl looked to be around their age, if a bit younger. Mary Jane, as a person who generally didn't exactly care much for gender when pursuing relationships, couldn't deny that the short haired brunette was quite the looker.
Grinning as she walked toward the two, Mary Jane shouted to them, "Yo, Gwencent!" MJ vaguely noticed the brunette stiffening, but her attention at that moment lied more on Gwen, who was failing to try to hide how mortified and suddenly uncomfortable she was. MJ's grin grew wider, more and more wondering what exactly the relationship between the two women in front of her was, though she would admit to having already begun speculating on that front.
The pale looking Gwen, trying and failing to act casual, asked, "Hey, MJ. What's up?"
Mary Jane shrugged, "Nothing much. Betty's with that talking car - I think she's convincing it to come back with us," she nodded her head back at Betty's direction, "and Glory's looking over by the history Spiders. Wanted to see what you were up."
MJ's eyes shifted to the frozen and scandalized brunette, nodding in her direction, "Who's your friend?"
"Uh...this Mayday." Gwen nudged the other girl forward, "We were just...chatting."
"Huh, well, nice to meet you." Mary Jane gave the girl a smile, offering the teenager a hand. The brunette on the other hand, who Mary Jane guessed must be really shy, just oddly stared at the offered hand for a few seconds, before another nudge from Gwen brought her back to reality, "Uh, y-yeah, you too!"
She shook the hand as quick as possible before pulling away, just as fast.
Yup, MJ thought, definitely shy.
"Sooo…." Mary Jane began, hoping to break the awkwardness, tilting her head as she gazed at brunette, who seemed rooted to the spot, "Mayday huh? It certainly…" MJ looked up and down at the other girl, "-fits, I suppose." Tilting her head, "Is that your actual name though, or is it like a nickname? Cause to me it kind of sounds like a nickname."
Mayday however just continued to stare at her like a deer stuck in headlights. MJ would have thought it made her look adorable, but honestly, now she was getting concerned. Like did she do something wrong?
"Hello? Mayday? You alright? I don't smell bad do I?"
Mayday balked, "W-What? No! No of course you don't smell!" She began to mumble, "W-Why would you think you smelled…oh god I didn't mean...."
MJ just laughed a bit, "Hey, it's fine. It was just a joke. Really, I didn't mean anything by it. Honest."
Mayday looked down, "Oh…"
MJ just smiled, feeling suddenly bad for the other girl, as she realized the other girl must have massive self-esteem issues. It was a shame, Mary Jane thought. If not for that, she might have been willing to try and go for it with the other girl, even despite the fact that Mary Jane was still getting over the stinging left over feeling of her recent date with Peter, which MJ had ended up sort of botching. She still semi cursed herself a bit for how she had handled breaking the news she didn't want a relationship with Peter, remembering how the poor kids face fell.
Of course, just because she wasn't planning on trying her luck with Mayday, didn't mean MJ couldn't have some fun.
"Hey, trust me, I don't bite," Mary Jane said with a flirty grin, before pausing, "much…not unless you want me to. Do you want me bite Mayday?"
The response she got though was not nearly what Mary Jane was expecting, as the extremely shy girl in front of her started hyperventilating, looking moments away from a panic attack. Not at all what the redhead had intended.
MJ sighed. Okay, maybe she had miscalculated a bit and pushed her luck. She's was going to have to backtrack on things otherwise the other girl was going to pass out. Thank god Gwen was here…
Mary Jane blinked, looking for Gwen and suddenly not finding the blonde. Okay…correction. Gwen was not here.
The singer darted her head around, looking for her bandmate, only to eventually spot her hanging out with Peter, or at least, their Peter. Or well, not their Peter, because he was dead…ah never mind. Sigh. See, this is why there being a multiverse kind of sucked. Everything gets all confusing.
Mary Jane groaned. What the hell was she supposed to do now?
Okay, MJ, think! Earlier you were able to snap her out of her funk when you distracted her with that lame smelling bad joke, right? Okay, fine, but what? … Gah! Why is this so difficult?! Wait! What was the really lame thing that Morales kid back in High School tried to do to pick up Gwen? Eh, whatever, it's better than nothing.
Mary Jane raised her left arm and dropped it on Mayday's shoulder, giving her a smoldering look with a lopsided grin, startling Mayday. Bracing for impact, Mary Jane, with as much confidence as she could, spoke.
"Hey."
And just like that, Mayday had reentered the world of the living, while Mary Jane internally jumped for joy.
YES! EXCELSIOR! Wait, what does that even mean? You know what, who cares, that thing actually f*cking worked. Thank you, Morales!
Mayday on the other hand, having snapped out of whatever funk she was, looked around in confusion for a second, before looking at Mary Jane, equally as confused, "Mom?"
And just like that, the mental celebration going on in Mary Jane's head stopped. No not just stopped, it completely crashed and burned.
Did she just call me Mom? Why would she call me-oh…
Oh.
Oh!
OH GOD!
Mayday, who it seemed realized what she just said, quickly grabbed and helped to steady the stumbling Mary Jane, whose face was red in embarrassment.
"I'm so…I…god this is so embarrassing." Mary Jane mumbled, while Mayday, who it seemed finally got over the funk she was in, quietly laughed.
"Yeah, tell me about it."
The two women quietly laughed between themselves.
"So, like, I'm really sorry."
Mayday waved her off, "It's uh… it's fine. I mean, who doesn't want to get flirted at by a younger version of their mother," She nervously chuckled, before shaking her head, "To be honest though, I probably could have handled my reaction a bit better."
"…Yeah."
An uneasy silence appeared, before Mary Jane finally broke it, "So…um…I'm really your mom then?"
Mayday winced, "A version of her, yeah…"
"And uh, your dad?"
"Peter Parker."
Mary Jane blinked, tilting her head to the side, "Huh…"
Mayday nodded.
Silence.
"Really?"
"What?" Mayday asked, seemingly partially offended on her father's behalf.
Mary Jane shook her head, "It's just, I don't know. I mean, I once went on a date with the guy, but I can't imagine marrying him or having kids with him."
Mayday shook her head, "No offense mom-I mean Mary Jane, like eighty to ninety percent of dad's love life in the multiverse is basically him ending up with you or versions of you, with the remaining twenty or ten percent being dad marrying Gwen Stacy or Felicia Hardy. The only other person I've ever seen a version of dad marry is either Carol Danvers or Cindy Moon."
Mary Jane stared at her, mouthing to herself, 'Eighty to ninety'.
"W-What about me though?"
Mayday shrugged, "I haven't exactly met many other versions of you, to be honest, so I really don't know. The only ones I've met all ended up with dad though, with one possible exception, and I guess, you."
Mary Jane frowned, "Who'd she end up with then? The one possible exception."
"I don't know, that version of you was a stripper."
Mary Jane moved back, looking like she'd been slapped, while Mayday grimaced, and began cursing under her breath.
"W-wait?! Like an actual frickin-"
"Yes! And please, let's maybe stop bringing that up again. It was traumatizing to me as it is." The brunette visibly shuddered.
"But h-how did that even happen?"
"I don't know, and I don't want to know! Thank you!" Mayday screamed in a panicked voice, as she began to mutter to herself about topless mothers dancing on poles, to MJ's growing horror.
The odd moment would have continued if not for a third voice, one who seemed to be quite amused by Mayday and MJ's byplay, butted it with a laugh, "Oh you guys are a riot, aren't you?"
Mary Jane and Mayday looked to see who had interrupted them, only for the two to gape at the figure in front of them, who to their duel shock, would seem to be, well, another Mary Jane Watson.
What the f*ck?
"Your me?!" Mary Jane gasped.
"Quite the observant one, aren't you." Other MJ sarcastically replied.
Okay…I guess I deserved that. I mean, I knew it was possible, but I didn't expect to actually meet another version of me while I was here. You know what MJ, just roll with it.
Giving the other redhead the once over, Mary Jane noticed the other MJ was the same age as her, and was wearing red and blue, with a blue jacket which featured a red spider blazed on the chest, blue legging covered by long red heelless boots with white tips. Lastly, her long red hair, which was topped by headphones covering her ears Mary Jane noted, was exposed and not covered by the mask, which itself had miraculously disappeared from her face by itself.
Don't know how she did that, but that was both cool and disgusting.
Mayday meanwhile, standing next to her, glanced and the two of them and muttered, "Great…Now there are two of them…This is never not weird…"
Mary Jane raised an eyebrow, "Aren't most of the people here technically versions of your dad though?"
The other girl however had a pained grimace at the mention of her dad, before mumbling, "Yeah, but I quickly got used to those. I told you, I don't often meet different versions of my mom, considering that they're much less…common."
"Well, certainly, no other me's that have flirted with you, I would hope." Mary Jane snarked at her own expense, having finally rolled with the fact she was standing in front of another version of herself.
Mayday rolled her eyes and shook her head, before turning her attention over to the three people before them. Mary Jane followed her gaze, frowning.
Other MJ, well the one in red and blue at least, raised an eyebrow at them, "You two done now?"
Mayday and Mary Jane turned to look at each other, before looking back at the Other MJ. Mayday shrugged, "Yeah, I guess so. Mind uh, introducing yourself?"
Other MJ raised an eyebrow, "What? Don't know your own mother?"
Mayday rolled her eyes, "Har har…"
Other MJ grinned as she took off the headphones she was wearing, causing Mary Jane and Mayday to wince at the really loud music coming out, which MJ vaguely recognized as her band's signature song, 'Face it Tiger'. It was so loud though that MJ kept having to wince, but she was honestly thankful when the Other MJ began to lower the volume.
God, my head is ringing…and, huh, that is Face it Tiger. Though I thought Gwen said that the Mary Janes being a band wasn't a common thing in the multiverse or whatever? That it was usually only found in worlds where she was Spider-Woman.
"Why the hell did you have that so loud?" Mary Jane asked, a grimace overtaking her. A couple of nearby Spiders were also glaring at Other MJ's direction as they walked past, seemingly all in agreement. One Spider in a black suit was giving Other MJ a particularly venomous look.
The redhead shrugged, "You'd be shocked how much that has helped me to relax and think. Don't exactly need to worry about hearing correctly with this thing on on and plus, the music helps to keep Crimson out of my head, since for whatever reason despite it not being able to hurt it anymore, my singing annoys the hell out of it. So ultimately a win-win I guess."
"Crimson?" Mary Jane frowned, clearly wondering who that was.
Other MJ's face was unreadable for a moment, but Mary Jane could have sworn for just a second that it had shifted to an almost nasty look, one full of bitterness, but it was gone before Mary Jane could be sure. Either way, the Other MJ turned to her shoulder and began speaking, "Come on out Crimson. Other me wants to say hi."
Mary Jane gasped in horror as a red, blobish, thing, with sharp teeth and wicked eyes literally popped out from the Other MJ's shoulder, before it gave the two girls a toothy grin. Then the image was made worse when the thing actually spoke.
"Hi."
Mary Jane would have screamed if Mayday hadn't grabbed her, giving her a look. Around them, various other Spiders were giving them, or more specifically Other MJ, looks of fear and shock, some even backing away, other looking like they were ready to get into action at any moment. Mayday quickly gave those Spiders a look and they reluctantly scooted away.
Mayday gave the Other MJ a hard look, "That's the Carnage Symbiote."
"Ah ha! See? I told you we should have called ourselves Carnage."
Oh god! It's voice!
The voice, to Mary Jane's growing horror, was like her own, only made twisted and inhuman. Evil.
Other MJ however didn't seem to be all that concerned about the things voice, as she rolled her eyes and replied, "For the hundredth time, no, I'm not calling you Carnage."
"Aww…Your no fun."
Other MJ rolled her eyes.
Mary Jane though still looked on in complete horror, "W-what t-the f*ck is that thing?!"
Mayday looked on her in sympathy, "It's called a symbiote. Your Gwen, unless I'm not mistaken, has one that's similar. They're basically creatures that need a host to survive, so they bond with a host. Their pretty much Parasites if we're-"
"PARASITE?!"
Mary Jane stepped back, away from the Other MJ and the thing on her shoulder. Other MJ glared slightly at Mayday before she grabbed her phone and threateningly lifted it, with a finger over the volume up button, and the song 'Face it Tiger' ready to play once more. The symbiote growled, but carefully eyed MJ's phone, wary at being subjugated to listening to MJ sign again.
Who knew one day I'd see my singing used to threaten a freaking monster…
Things slowly began to calm down, and the redheaded singer began to slowly swallow her fear of the red creature that was now glaring at Mayday again. Mary Jane now vaguely remembered Gwen having talked about that new suit she got and having called it a symbiote, but honestly MJ hadn't payed much attention at the time, considering all the other stuff and revelations that had been occurring then.
Now part of her wished she had, so that she could have a better idea of what the hell the thing in front of her was.
Other MJ gave both Mary Jane and Mayday a grimace, ignoring the silently fuming Crimson on her shoulder, "Yeah, sorry about that. It doesn't like the P-word, as you can see."
Mary Jane quietly nodded while Mayday crossed her arms over her chest, the later speaking, "That thing…that thing is dangerous. I've had run ins with my universes Carnage and it wasn't pretty," shaking her head to herself, "You're not the first version of my mom who I've met who happens to be bonded to the Carnage Symbiote, but hers was just an extension of herself, as the symbiote didn't have a mind of its own anymore."
The mention of that another Mary Jane with a Carnage symbiote led to the nasty, bitter look MJ had sworn she had seen earlier return to the Other MJ face's, as the other girl clenched her fist, and quietly began to focus on her breathing.
I knew I hadn't imagined that.
Crimson though began to suddenly crackle, causing both Mary Jane and Mayday to startle.
"Oh ho ho…oh look another thing for you to be jealous about! Three strikes and you're out!"
The thing began to laugh loudly as the Other MJ's eyes blazed in anger, before she snapped at the red symbiote, "Shut it!"
"Oh, don't look at me. I'm not the one who gets all mad and bitter every time she looks at the girl," it nodded it's head toward Mary Jane, "who didn't get the honor of becoming my host," then it looked at Mayday, "or when she sees the little girl she'll never have with Petey-poo."
Other MJ looked thunderous, "You stupid little-" She looked moments away from grabbing the neck of the snake looking creature, "You know for a fact that I-I'm…I'm not still pining over Peter…I-I have a boyfriend…"
"Liar Liar, pants on fire! We both know you're not over him at all! And as for him," it spoke the last word with such venom, "you can do so much better than that-"
"YOU GOT TO FACE IT TIGER! FACE IT TIGER! YOU HIT THE JACKPOT!"
The loud screeching of the song 'Face it Tiger blared to life once more, this time coming from Mary Jane's own phone, which she held up at the Other MJ and Crimson, the later of whom seemed somewhat pained (not physically pained though, from what MJ could tell. It looked more like a annoyed kind of pain) by the sound of Mary Jane's singing. Mary Jane herself was wincing, but she ignored the volume of the song for just a moment, as the Other MJ took the hint and put her headphone on and began to play the song on her own phone. Mary Jane nodded and paused the song on her phone, as the red symbiote receded back into the Other MJ's shoulder.
For a moment, it was beautifully silent. Other MJ sagged her shoulders and mumbled a bit before she looked up at her dimensional counterpart.
"Thanks."
Mary Jane nodded, "No problem."
Other MJ was quiet for another moment, before speaking, "So uh…sorry about Crimson. It uh…it tends to get all moody like that after you use the P-Word."
"Yeah, I can tell."
Other MJ nodded, unsure of what to say, while the still silent Mayday looked between them with her arms crossed. Finally, Mayday gave a large sigh and rubbed her eyes, before turning to the Other MJ, "Why…why the hell are you still wearing that thing. It's dangerous and clearly you don't have the best relationship with the thing."
Other MJ shrugged, "Oh trust me, I tried, but the consensus seemed to be that I couldn't get it off without me dying as a result. Plus, our relationship, for lack of a better term, is not nearly as bad as it was two years ago when we first met. Hell, it's not even as bad as it was a year ago," the Other MJ looked down, "It's just…I'm just not in a good mood at the moment, for uh…personal reasons, and then you said the P-word, and well…trust me, Crimson always gets in a pissy mood if you use the P-word."
Mary Jane frowned, "How'd that thing even get on you?"
Other MJ looked on her, looking both lost and sad at the same time, "God…t-that's…. that's a long story…" She looked away, lost in thought, "Honestly I'd think it take over an hour to tell the story. If I wrote it all down, I think you'd have to write over a million words just to get it all down, but for now I'll just settle for the quick summary."
"See, in my world, I was in a band, the Mary Janes," Mary Jane stood up straighter at hearing her bands name, suddenly realizing the implications, "and unknown to me for a long time, my best friend, and our bands drummer, Gwen Stacy, had gotten bit by a radioactive spider and was secretly a superhero, Spider-Woman. There a lot more that came after, but something tells me your familiar with a lot of it." The symbiote host nodded in Mary Jane's direction.
"Peter Parker turned himself into the Lizard and everyone blamed Gwen for his death? Blind lawyer possessed by a demon who's a secret Kingpin of Crime?" the redhead asked.
Other MJ nodded, "Got it in one," Looking to the side, she continued, "For two years, nothing really changed much. Gwen was hunted by the cops because everyone thought she was guilty, and she kept missing band practice. Same shtick for two years, that is, until Peter Parker miraculously showed up again, only now he was suddenly calling himself Spider-Man and he claimed that he was from another world, one where it was still the 1930s. That familiar to you too other me?"
Mary Jane shook her head, "Recently a Peter Parker did come to our world, but he wasn't from the 1930s. Everything else though before that is."
The Other MJ blinked, tilting her head to the side, "Huh…"
She shook her head and kept speaking, "I never exactly tried to involve myself into what Gwen was doing, eventually though, it caught up to me. I got into an argument with Glory, and after I ran off, I got attacked in an alley by these bastards who wanted to rape me." Her look was dark, "Only thing was, as I was laying there, bleeding, Crimson found me. A few days before hand, it and it's original host, Cletus Kassady, had been," she paused for a second, seemingly searching for the right word, "…defeated," the Other MJ paused again, as the red in her suit rippled, and an uncomfortable look crossed her face. She casually thumbed over and pressed the volume up button on her phone before she continued, "by Gwen and Peter. It was by itself and in need of a host, and well, I guess I was convenient. I became Scarlet Spider and the rest is shall we say history."
Mary Jane looked at the Other MJ in confusion, "That's it?"
"What? Did you expect me to tell my whole life story? You asked for a summary, and I gave you a summary."
Mary Jane frowned, "It's just…It sounds like you skipped a bit at the end."
Other MJ laughed, "Of course I skipped stuff. There's a bit that happened that I'm not proud of. I won't deny it, but I don't care to drudge up memories of it, thank you very much."
She's hiding something. What exactly did she do…?
She never got to ask though, as Mayday, who had been silent up until now, finally spoke up, "You know, I think I might know her world actually."
Both Mary Jane Watson's looked at her in confusion, "You do?"
Mayday nodded, "Yeah, if I got the right world, then I actually got stuck in it for like a week once. It was before the Inheritors first started attacking us. You probably wouldn't know about it since I mostly fought alongside your Gwen. I remember her telling me a bit about her world, and she mentioned that a version of Noir lived in it, and that her Mary Jane was a hero called Scarlet Spider. She didn't exactly tell me you got your powers from the Carnage symbiote though," she frowned, "Anyways, I'm sure she would remember if I ever bump into her here. Trust me, it was a whole uh, thing."
Other MJ tilted her head, "Yeah, Gwen never mentioned any of that."
"Really? Not even once?"
"Nope…"
Mayday blinked, tilting her head to the side, "Huh…"
Shaking her head, the brunette daughter of Spider-Man muttered to herself, "Maybe I got the wrong universe then."
Turning to Mary Jane, Mayday waved a hand in the Other MJ's direction, "Well, assuming I'm not actually wrong about her world, then from what I understand, their world is basically an offshoot of your universe, Earth-65. Theirs is one those universes that tend to be kind of weird because they exist solely due to interference from other universes," Shaking her head, Mayday frowned, "From what I remember though, it doesn't technically have an official designation of it's yet at the moment. I think we were planning to just give it the designation Earth-165, but I'm not sure if we went through with that."
Mary Jane frowned, "Okay…" She looked over at the Other MJ in thought.
So, wait, her world like, split from mine and sh*t right? That means I could have become her or something?
Grabbing her head at the feelings of the beginnings of an incoming headache, one thought quickly came through Mary Jane's mind.
Gah! The Multiverse is too f*cking confusing.
Other MJ was frowning, looking at Mayday in scrutiny, "You know, now that you mention it, you do look familiar…"
Mayday brightened up, "So I was right! I mean, we did run into one another at one point, sort of. I never told you who I was though…I mean, I was too busy hiding from you…"
Other MJ distractedly nodded. She turned to Mary Jane and offhandedly said, "Unless I'm wrong, yes, it means your world and mine used to be one and the same until they split, I'm guessing probably when my Peter showed up."
Mary Jane looked at her oddly, "Does that thing let you read my mind? How'd you know what I was thinking?"
Other MJ snorted, "I'm you, aren't I? I'd like to think that'd mean that I have some insight into what exactly it is that you might be thinking."
"Right…"
Other MJ rolled her eyes.
Mayday gave her a look, "I'm not sure that's how that works though."
Other MJ shrugged, "I was right though, wasn't I?"
Mary Jane sighed and turned to Mayday, "You know she doing this on purpose rig-" Mary Jane never got to finished as a shout interrupted her and caught the attention of the three of them.
"Mom! Look! Look!" they looked up to see a little girl pointing at Mary Jane, "It's her! I told you I saw her!"
The girl let go of her a woman's hand and ran up to them, ignoring the shouts of her mother, grinning the entire way. It barely took Mary Jane a moment to realize it was the same little redheaded girl with pigtails she had seen earlier. Now said girl was now grinning up at both Mary Jane's and Mayday, excitement and glee in her eyes.
Arriving behind her was the girl's mother in question, who had finally caught up to and grabbed her daughters' hand. To Mary Jane's surprise, she saw that the girl's mother was an older, Mary Jane, who looked to being in her late thirties and was wearing a costume not too dissimilar from that of the average Spider-Man's like Peter, minus the fact that the blue was replaced with white. This older MJ seemed mightily amused, as she tightly held her daughters hand, so as to try preventing the girl from running off again to grab at Mayday and the two Mary Jane.
"And now there are three of them…Gah! I hate my luck." Mayday bemoaned.
Other MJ, well the one from before – Damn! This is so confusing now that there was a third MJ, she was just going to mentally relabel the MJ with the Carnage Symbiote as Scarlet MJ – anyways, Scarlet MJ went poker-faced at the little girl and her mother, her left-hand tightening into a fist.
"Mom! See? See? I was right!" the little girl exclaimed excitedly.
"Yes Annie, I can see that." The Older MJ nodded and gave the three of them a smile.
The little girl – Annie was it? – turned to them and chattered, "I knew I had saw mom, or well, I guess younger mom, so when I went to find mom though to show you to her, you were gone, and we had to find you, but it took so long since there are so many other Spiders here and not all of them are mom, but then I saw your hair –"
"Breathe Annie! Breathe!" Mary Jane said, shaking the girl's shoulder.
"Jesus kid, don't you know how to use periods?" Scarlet MJ sarcastically asked, "I felt like I was listening to Hermione Potter speak on the Hogwarts Express from those Harry Granger movies."
Annie gave her a weird look, "You mean Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter movies."
"No, I meant Hermione Potter-"
"It's Hermione Granger."
"No, it isn't!"
"Yes, it is!"
"Hey!" Mary Jane snapped at Scarlet MJ, "What are you doing? She's like eight, how old are you? And since when are you a fan of those movies?"
I'm certainly not.
Scarlet MJ mumbled, "I watched them with Gwen and Cindy once a few months after I first got Crimson. I got addicted…" Then she slapped her own forehead, "And I totally forgot that different worlds often have differently named movies, shows, and books."
Annie took that as a hint that she was right and proudly grinned up at Scarlet MJ, before sticking out her tongue at her. Her mother meanwhile was quietly laughing in the background.
Mayday meanwhile ignored the two younger Mary Janes, as she was looking at the new pair, slightly stiffly, with the same uncomfortableness from when she had first met Mary Jane having now slightly returned. She cleared her throat, and addressed the mother and daughter pair, "Your uh, your Spinneret right? Well I mean, I know your Mary Jane Watson, but your hero name is Spinneret right? And this is your daughter Annie, otherwise known as Spiderling?"
The Older MJ blinked, tilting her head to the side, "Huh…"
She frowned in confusion, "How do you-"
"I've met you and your daughter before," Mayday interrupted, "uh, older versions of you that is. From a different universe." Looking down on the redheaded girl, "That Annie was a teenager. We uh, fought alongside each other."
The Older MJ, or it seemed adept to call her Spinneret, seemed unsure how to respond, except to say, "Ok…"
Scarlet MJ, who was looking between Mayday and Spinneret decided to butt in, "Wait, hold on a second. You said her hero name is Spinneret?"
Mayday looked confused by the question but nodded.
Scarlet MJ snorted and began to laugh quietly to herself. The other four gave her odd looks, but the symbiote host shook her head and nodded to Mayday, "Sorry, Sorry. Don't mind me. Continue whatever it is you were saying."
Annie tilted her head to Mary Jane, and gave a stage whisper, like she was telling some great secret, "She's weird." Mary Jane covered a laugh with a cough while Scarlet MJ, who had heard (Annie hadn't exactly been subtle or that quiet), glared at them both.
Kind of weird to laugh at the expense of another me, but what are you going to do.
Spinneret gave a resigned sigh and bemused smile at her daughter's antics, before turning to Mayday.
"Sorry, I never got your name?"
Mayday's eye's widened, and she looked uncertain of what to say, glancing at both younger Mary Janes and Annie. She gulped and looked at Spinneret, and finally stuttered out, "M-My name…" she took a deep breath, "my…m-my name is Mayday...I-I mean, May Parker… and m-my…" The brunette then looked down, unable to gaze at the suddenly wide and tearful eyes of her mother counterpart, "…m-my parents were Peter and M-Mary Jane Parker."
Mary Jane and Scarlet MJ looked at each other in confusion, wondering what was going on, while the little red head girl looked at Mayday like she was some kind of odd specimen.
Spinneret's hand reached up and softly stroked Mayday's face, staring and examining every detail of the brunette Spider's face. Her eyes were intensely watery as she studied Mayday's features.
"It's funny," a sobbing laugh came from her, "you look just like I always imagined you would have look like i-if…if…"
Spinneret closed her eyes, and separated her hand from Mayday's cheek, before she moved to leave. The brunette however shook her head and pulled Spinneret into a hug. It was as she was watching the sobs emanate out of Spinneret that Mary Jane finally understood what exactly it was that had happened, as she and Scarlet MJ quietly shared a look of dawning understanding with each other.
Damn…she must have lost her Mayday…
Truth be told, Mary Jane had herself never given much thought to having kids. It was always something that she thought she'd have when she eventually found someone and got married of course, but it was never something she particularly gave more than a brief second thought to. Yet now, not only was she confronted with two girls whom were technically her daughter, or at least the daughters of other versions of her, but now she also had to deal with the idea of what it would be like to actually lose one of those kids, which frankly Mary Jane had never considered something that could ever happen to her.
Yet sadly enough it seems to have happened to the older version of herself that now stood before her, and that bothered Mary Jane more than she would admit. Looking over at Scarlet MJ, Mary Jane could see that the same thoughts must have been running in her head, as she loosed her fist, and looked on in sympathy toward their mutual older counterpart. Said older version of her self's sobs now began receding into small hiccups, as she slowly disentangled from Mayday, and quietly wiped a final tear from her eye.
A short silence enveloped the three Mary Janes and the lone Mayday, while Annie continued to look at her mother and interdimensional sister in confusion.
"I don't get it…" said Annie, a confused frown on her face. Mary Jane looked at the girl sadly while Scarlet MJ looked away. With a grieving look on her face, Spinneret knelt down before the little girl and began to quietly explain, Mayday giving the girl an almost remorseful look. Annie looked between her mother and Mayday as Spinneret quietly explained the fate of her world's Mayday, of the older sister she almost had. A subdued Annie stayed quiet even after her mother finished explaining, giving only a silent nod.
The silence continued for moments, no one sure of what exactly to say, before Scarlet MJ finally broke the tension, looking at Mary Jane, "So um…how are the Mary Janes doing in your world?"
Mary Jane looked startled at the question, before answering, "Uh, we're doing good. We uh, gained a bit of popularity recently, and Face it Tiger recently entered the top 10 music charts."
Scarlet MJ looked a bit stunned, "Wait…really?"
Mary Jane scratched the back of her head, looking down and gloomy for a split second, "Yeah, my Gwen's identity got exposed more than about a year ago. So, the band's currently uh, riding the waves of her new fame, as you might say…"
Spinneret meaning was looking at the two in confusion, muttering to herself out loud, "Gwen's identity? Band?"
They both looked at Spinneret, before Scarlet MJ answered, "In our world, a friend of ours, Gwen Stacy, is Spider-Woman, and together we're in a rock band called the Mary Janes, named after yours truly. Other MJ here," Scarlet MJ nodded toward Mary Jane, "is in the same boat."
Mary Jane titled her head, "I'm guessing that's not the case in your world though…?"
Spinneret shook her head, her long flowing locks of red hair shaking with the movement, "Nope. My husband Peter is Spider-Man, while G-Gwen is…" she took a breath, "Gwen is dead…" the two younger Mary Jane's reeled back at the word's while Spinneret softly finished, "She…She was my friend."
G-Gwen's…her Gwen is dead?
Mayday gave a sad nod, "Unfortunately that seems to commonly be the case in the multiverse."
Spinneret looked pained at the words while Scarlet MJ and Mary Jane gave each other shocked look's, neither knowing what exactly to say in response.
Yeah, Gwen never mentioned that little bit…
Gwen wasn't exactly sure how to process the idea of Gwen Stacy, her friend, being dead, let alone the idea that it was a common occurrence in the multiverse. Mary Jane wondered if that was why Peter and her getting together seemed so common in the multiverse, though she couldn't imagine all those Gwen's dying so often for that to be the case.
I suppose now's suddenly the time for shocking truth's I wasn't expecting or had given much thought too.
Spinneret gave Mary Jane and Scarlet MJ a chance to process the idea of Gwen's death before she continued her response to the earlier question, "As for being in a band… well, I can say I never was part of that. I mean, I did do a bit of modeling and some work as an actress sure, but I definitely didn't join any bands."
Mary Jane was taken aback, "Wait, you were a model?"
The acting part doesn't entirely surprise me considering the acting classes I used to go to, so it kind of makes sense I might have pursued that more in another world, but where did the modeling come from?
Spinneret nodded, "Yeah, when I was a lot younger. Way before Annie was even born." The older redhead gave one of the younger redheads a look, "Though you don't seem all that surprised compared to her?"
Scarlet MJ shook her head, "Nope. Did some modeling myself a while back." She grimaced, "Wasn't a great point in my life, I'll admit. The guy who I was working for, Rodrick Kingsley," Mayday and Spinneret both grimaced and gave Scarlet MJ sympathetic looks, "turned out to be a supervillain. Plus, I ended up having to fight against two of my fellow models who went on to join my rogue's gallery."
"Can't say I remember having to fight other models, but I I'm not surprised about Kingsley being a d*ck in another world as well."
Mary Jane looked between them, "I'm guessing this Kingsley is someone to watch out for?"
Scarlet MJ laughed, "Oh you have no idea…"
Mayday nodded with a shudder, "Agreed."
Mary Jane looked at Mayday, tilting her head, "You worked for this Kingsley a**hole as a model too?"
"Me?" Mayday shook her head, "No, thankfully not. But I have fought the guy before and he's a real piece of work. As for modeling, well while I've gotten a few offers before, I've never taken them because of well…" she gestured to the Spider suit she was wearing.
Spinneret studied her a bit, "You should give it a thought. You've certainly got the looks for it."
Mayday turned a bit red and stuttered out a thanks.
Mary Jane meanwhile decided it might be best to see if she could hear more about this Kingsley fella. The name, now that she thought about it, seemed to be worriedly familiar. Opening her mouth to speak, "So this Kingsley, what can you -" Mary Jane stopped though and turned her head in confusion at the sudden out of place noise of a distance, angry sounding car horn.
That wasn't the Spider-Buggie Betty was bothering, was it? Please don't be the Spider-Buggie.
Mary Jane wasn't entirely sure what to do but was still prepared to put it out of her head and continue speaking, when she heard angry yelling. This disturbance was followed by a Peter Parker wearing only a monocle and old timey underwear shorts running through the crowd of Spider people, and then past them.
Mayday and the three Mary Janes just raised an eyebrow while Annie blinked, tilting her head to the side, "Huh…" That was, Mary Jane realized, the first word the suddenly quiet little girl had spoken since she had found out about the death of her world's Mayday Parker as a baby.
From where the second undies Spider-Man Mary Jane had seen today had run through came a group of furious Spider-people. One of them, who looked like the female Asian spider wearing black and white that MJ had seen being chatted at by the silvery armored Spider-Man minus the hair, which was much longer, asked, "Did you see where he-"
The five of them pointed in the direction the naked Spider guy had gone, to which the group of angry Spiders followed, briefly giving them thanks as they went, though not before the Asian Spider who had spoken earlier and a short female spider in black and yellow with claws coming out of her hands both gave Scarlet MJ a nod, to which the redhead responded back in kind.
I guess they must be from Scarlet MJ's world. Never met them in my world though, and that younger one looks like she could be Annie's age.
Mayday looked up at the roof, looking as though she was rethinking her life, "It's Tuesday, isn't it? Why do these things always happen on Tuesday…?"
Mary Jane raised an eyebrow, "Is this kind of thing…normal?"
Mayday gave a crazed, strangled laugh, "Oh you have no idea…" she shook her head, "Anyways, what were you saying again?"
"You know what? Never mind."
This Kingsley guy sounds like a massive ass, but whatever. Most of the supervillains Gwen fights tend to be total pushovers, so I doubt she'd have anything to worry about. Just got to avoid any offers of modeling for this guy is all.
Annie, still looking in the direction from where the Spider-Man in undies and the angry mob had ran to, scrunched up her face in worry, "I hope that other younger daddy will be alright."
Scarlet MJ shrugged, "I'm sure he'll be fine squirt. Curious what he did though to make them all angry though?"
Mayday hand went to her chin as she gave the question consideration, "I'm not sure. I recognized a few of the Spiders there like the Spider-Man of Earth-96282 and the one from Earth-32323 and I've never seen them that angry."
Scarlet MJ tilted her head, "Can't entirely see Cindy acting like that either frankly. Laura yeah, but not Cindy. At least, not without good reason."
Mayday sighed, shaking her head, "Honestly, while I'll admit to being curious, we're really not going to get anywhere speculating unless someone wants to go and ask," she looked around to see no volunteers, "so there's no point in speculating."
None of them knew what to say after that, realizing that Mayday was right. Deciding it was best to change the subject, Mary Jane turned to Spinneret, "So, earlier you mentioned your Peter was Spider-Man right? You never mentioned it, but how exactly did you get your powers anyhow?"
I'm not jealous, just curious…
Spinneret looked a bit sheepish, "Oh! I suppose I never did." She proceeded to tell them, with various input by Annie, the story of the villain Regent, how he had captured various heroes and villains and stole their powers and abilities, and how he had ultimately been stopped due to the efforts of herself, her daughter, and her husband, with Spinneret eventually using the same tech to share her husband's powers and fight crime alongside him and their daughter.
Mary Jane had to admit; she did find her counterpart's story interesting. Glancing at Scarlet MJ and Mayday, she noted the later was looking on in interest (MJ guessed the older Annie she mentioned that she fought alongside with had never told her the story), while the former seemed was back to tightening her left-hand and looking stone faced.
Mary Jane sighed at that, somehow not surprised that Scarlet MJ wasn't taking it well.
Honestly, I'd probably start acting a bit like a jealous b*tch too if I had that Crimson Carnage whatever it's called thing stuck in me and I then had to stand and hear the story of another version of myself be everything I want to be all in one package.
"You alright there MJ?" a voice behind the distracted Mary Jane asked, causing her to jump in fright. She twisted around, to see it was Gwen, an amused look crossing her features. Behind the blonde stood the awkward form of Peter Parker, who gave MJ an uncertain smile, which MJ partially found to be quite fake.
Guess he still hasn't gotten over the awkwardness from the end of our date.
Gwen's smirk however shifted into a confused frown, "Uh MJ? Why are there three of you?"
Mary Jane raised an eyebrow, "Why do you think?"
Gwen looked confused at first by the question, before she remembered, "Oh right! I guess they must be other versions of you then? You know, I think I remember fighting along side another you when we fought the Inheritors a second time, but I never got the chance to chat with her."
"Right… You done with whatever it is you needed to do?"
Gwen nodded, "Yup. You ready to go?"
Mary Jane nodded, "Let me just say goodbye and I'll be meet you by where we came in."
Gwen agreed, before she and Peter went on their way. Mary Jane watched them go, before she turned to the other two MJ's as well as Annie and Mayday.
"So uh, that was my Gwen…" she gave them all a nod, "I guess that mean's I best start saying goodbye."
Annie looked up at her, looking almost thunderstruck, "W-What! You leaving?! You can't leave yet!"
Scarlet MJ snarked down at the girl, "I think you'll find she very well can." Mary Jane saw that she wasn't even bothering to hide the jealousy and scorn in her tone, leading to Spinneret to frown at Scarlet MJ.
Mary Jane shook her head at Scarlet MJ, "Hey, look I get all that you're a little jealous of -"
"I AM NOT JEALOUS!"
Spinneret looked on in confusion, before Mayday leaned in to whisper in her ear. Mary Jane watched as the older redhead's eye's widened and she looked at Scarlet MJ, seemingly in a new light. It was, Mary Jane noted, both a look of understanding and sympathy, but tinted with a shadow of fear.
I guess she finally knows about Crimson then…
Spinneret quietly grabbed her daughters' hand, and pushed Annie behind her, shielding her with her body as she faced Scarlet MJ.
"Mary Jane, you might be surprised, but part of me understands what your going through. For years, I had to watch as my husband risked his life to save others, forever yearning to be able to join him. Yet when the day finally came, and I was able to fight alongside him, I unintentionally became a weakness for him." Spinneret gave a sigh, lost in the memories of her past, "Whenever I fought alongside Peter, I ended up draining his powers, leaving him vulnerable."
Spinneret looked away, "So one day, I accepted help from someone who I thought was a friend, to try and counteract the drain my suit had on my husband's power. Instead, I ended up the host to the Venom symbiote, which had belonged to an enemy of my husbands."
Mayday's breath went sharp at that, while Mary Jane looked at her in confusion. The brunette explained to Mary Jane and Scarlet MJ, "It's the symbiote your Gwen wears, the one she calls Webster. It some world's, like yours, it's a force for good, but in most others…" She left the implication, which both Mary Jane and Scarlet MJ understood.
In most worlds, this Venom symbiote isn't a good guy.
Mary Jane had seen her Gwen and the symbiote she was wearing in action, and she shuttered at the idea of her ever having to fight someone wearing it.
Spinneret looked to Scarlet MJ, continuing, "I know what wearing a symbiote who wishes more harm on you than good is like. How it can act as a voice in your head, speaking to you the most terrible things and making you think and do things you'd never imagine doing. It's not a pleasant feeling let me tell you, and it took shear willpower on my part to finally escape it's grasp." She shook her head, "I'm sorry for what you probably have had to go through, considering I know for a fact that the Carnage symbiote is even more vile and evil than Venom ever was. It wouldn't shock me if that thing has forced you to commit untold amounts of murder and carnage to sate it's bloodlust," Scarlet MJ's breath went sharp at that.
So that's what she was hiding earlier…
Spinneret nodded, seeing that she had been right on the money, "Mayday told me you said things have gotten better for you since you put that thing on, maybe they have, maybe they haven't. Ultimately that's for you to decide. But let me tell you, if you let that thing consume you, let what it's done to you take over, that's ultimately on you. You don't have to be defined by that thing, not if you don't choose to be."
With that Spinneret tightened her grip on her daughters' hand, and said her farewells to Mayday, Mary Jane, and even the silent Scarlet MJ, before she dragged her daughter away, despite the girl's pleading to stay. Scarlet MJ, still silent, stared off at the direction Spinneret had gone.
"I'm sorry…" she mumbled, mostly to herself. Mayday put a hand on her shoulder, but Scarlet MJ shook it off, and quietly said, "I'm uh…I-I'm going to go look for my G-Gwen and P-Peter. So uh, see you…" With that, she quickly took over, leaving Mary Jane and Mayday to look on sadly in her direction.
"You think she'll be fine?" Mary Jane asked her interdimensional daughter.
Mayday nodded, "Yeah, I think so. Just in case, I think I'll drop in her world to check up on her. I've been meaning to visit her Gwen anyways, to catch up."
Mary Jane nodded, "That's good…" she paused, unsure what to say, before looking up at the brunette, "So I guess I'll be seeing you then?"
Mayday gave her a side glance and nodded, "Sure. I'll try and meet up with you next time I visit your world."
Mary Jane nodded and wished her a final goodbye, before she scrambled on to the hallway they had entered from. Her thoughts were whirling in her head, as the past conversation with her two counterparts and two interdimensional daughters filled her head. Seeing both Mayday and Annie had certainly been weird, and Mary Jane didn't doubt it would make some of her interactions with Peter further awkward. Spinneret, the older version of Mary Jane, while unusual, had certainly been easier to accept than that other Mary Jane, Scarlet MJ.
God, I hope I never become like that. I feel bad for her and sh*t, but I definitely don't want to be like her.
Shaking her head, Mary Jane finally arrived to find Gwen, standing by the doorway, grimacing at something inside the hallway to where they had first arrived. From this angle MJ couldn't see, but she could certainly hear it, and it was pretty loud. Looking over Gwencent's shoulder to see what the blonde was frowning at, MJ had to do a double take at the strange scene before her.
What the f*cking hell?
It was perhaps one of the most chaotic scenes Mary Jane had ever witnessed, consisting of a horrendously drunk half-naked Glory wielding a Spider-Man themed bat, who was fighting alongside the crazed undies wearing Peter from earlier (which MJ, with better clarity, now realized was the Steampunk Spider-Man whom she had talked when she was with Glory), against a mob of angry Spider people. Caesarion, wearing nothing but pieces of his chest armor, looked to equally as drunk as Glory and the Steampunk Spider, was wielding two swords and stabbing at any Spider that came at him.
Behind him was Betty, who was by some miracle somehow managing to hold her own while she was wrestling with the six-armed Spider-Man that MJ had noticed earlier. Next to them was the British Spider-Buggie, who was flashing his lights, honking, and screaming various obscurities as Betty, Glory, and Caesarion. A few other Spiders, including one dressed as a punk and another who had the number five on the spider symbol on his chest, all whom MJ didn't recognize seeing earlier, seemed to have sided with her two friends and the two half-naked historical Spiders in fighting the angry Spider mob.
While this was all going on, the 1602 Spider-Man was yelling out Shakespeare quotes at everyone and anyone who happened to pass by.
Did…Did Glory and Betty start a riot?
"W-What the fuck is going on?!" Mary Jane gasped in horror.
Gwen shrugged, looking completely helpless. MJ turned to her, "Aren't we going to help them?"
"You don't think we've already tried?" Gwen nodded at Peter, who was now sporting a black eye. He was trying to cover it with an icepack and wincing. Next to him were two other unmasked Spider-Men, who both looked pained and seemed to be taking a moment to recover. Mary Jane thought neither of them looked like the Peter Parker's she was familiar with.
"Thank god for having a healing factor, right?" Peter said, before he winced again.
Mary Jane rubbed her eyes, debating whether or not it might be safe to go back to Mayday, Annie, and the other versions of her. She finally turned to Gwen, "You sure you don't know what's going on?"
Gwen scratched her head, "Not much. All I know is from what the Spider-Buggie is screaming at between the creative curse words. Something about Betty molesting him and Glory trying to have a threesome in his back seats."
Wait Glory tried to what?! Why would-Oh god! That stinking wine she and those two Spiders were drinking! F*ck! How strong was that stuff?!
Mary Jane waved her hand at the horrific scene, "A-And the other pissed off Spiders?"
Gwen shrugged, not knowing the answer.
The five of them were silent for a for a few moments afterward, just watching the chaos unfold before them, before Mary Jane hand enough and finally burst into laughter. Eventually Peter and Gwen joined in, followed by the two other Spider-Men, tears streaming down their eyes as they watch the spectacle before them. Mary Jane whipped the tears from her, "We are never letting them live this down, are we?"
Gwen grinned, watching as the usually mature Glory was forcibly disarmed by a pissed off Spider-Man with a large white spider symbol and another Spider-Man wearing red and black, and shook her head, "No…. No, we are not."
Let's see Glory try to pull of being the band's mature team mom now! Oh I'm definitely going to wave this over her head forever.
One of the unmasked Spider-Man's kneeling next to Peter, who MJ thought looked more like the guy from Seabiscut than Peter, looked to Gwen, "You know, their probably going to ban you from bringing your friends again."
Another grimace covered Gwen's features, before she sighed. Suddenly, the five of them saw Glory get her bat back and aimed the bat at the Spider-Man in red and black's – they all winced.
Oh, I think I felt that from here.
"Yeah, we're totally getting banned from here." Mary Jane said, with a wince. The three Spider-Men next to her looked on in pained sympathy for their fellow Spider-Man.
"I might be able to still be allowed to bring you since you haven't done anything," Gwen said with a shake of her head, "but I'm definitely not going to be allowed to bring Glory and Betty again."
MJ nodded, not surprised, seeing as Glory was busy beating the Spider-Man with the white symbol repeatedly with a bat while Betty charged at the Spider-Buggie, roaring, "I WILL HAVE HIM! I WILL HAVE HIM!"
Jesus, don't these Spider people have Spider-Sense like Gwen does or something? At this rate, Glory and Betty look like they could give all of Gwen's villains a run for their money.
Gwen, looking helpless, changed the conversation as she turned to MJ, "So what'd you think? Of everything else I mean?"
Mary Jane shrugged, a grin on her lips, "I had fun. Though that reminds me, it seems you conveniently forgot to tell me a little important fact about Mayday…"
"W-What about Mayday?"
MJ gave her a look, "Oh I don't know, what was the number she said again? Eighty to ninety percent of all Peter Parkers end up with Mar-"
Gwen raised her hands in surrender, "Okay, okay! I may have forgotten to mention a few details. I was going to through! Eh, eventually."
"Suuuure you were Spider-Gwen, sure you were."
"Hey! To be fair, I'm dead in most universes. You win Peter by default!" One of the unmasked Spider-Men, who MJ thought looked like the guy from that Headbook movie, looked somber at the mention of the deaths of Other Gwen Stacy's.
Okay, what is it with these two alternate Peter's looking like actors from movies I've watched?
The redhead shook her head at Gwen, "That doesn't make it bette-"
Mary Jane never got to finish as the two were suddenly startled though when a Spider-Woman in black and white flew and crashed into a wall, not far from them by a Spider-Man with one eye, before he was immediately backflipped by another Spider-Woman, this one with long brown hair and wearing red and white. Said Spider-Woman was then immediately charged at by a bat wielding drunk Glory while the battered Spider-Man with the white symbol seemed like he was refusing to give up as he limped after her.
Mary Jane gave Gwen and Peter a sidelong glance, a grin twisting her features, "Hey, you know if they got any popcorn here by any chance?"
Chapter 14 - Talking like healthy human beings
Hey, sorry this took a while. This chapter needed some major re-writing. I'll explain at the ending Author's notes, but let's just say I had to chunk out 3000 words and that really put me off from updating for a while. Hopefully the next chapter will come faster since it'll be much lighter in feeling.
Anyway, 14 days till Endgame After that I can start adding some more MCU characters for the fic and decide if I wanna follow Endgame's plot exactly or completely branch off to make this its own thing.
Oh, and since some people were confused: No, Gwen and MCU did not have sex in the last chapter. Peter was mentioned as still wearing his full costume sans mask and unless they did it right through the underoos, I think it's safe to say that cherry hasn't been popped yet.
Chapter 14: Talking like healthy human beings
So...he was having soda with Gwen's arch-enemy.
Peter sipped at the still far too sweet soda and clicked his heels against the surface of the billboard. The same billboard that had Peter Parker's face in it just a few months ago. According to Gwen after she went to prison - which he still couldn't believe anyone would do to someone like her - Mayor Jameson went on an about face because he didn't want to acknowledge that he'd jumped the gun and blamed a grieving woman for murdering her own best friend.
So, now the billboard was just about some kind of soda that probably led to the rise of diabetes cases.
"You're very quiet, Mr. Parker." Matt Murderdock (to quote Gwen) said idly. He sat next to Peter a fair distance away, one hand holding onto a can of soda and the other twirling his bloodstained walking stick idly. He'd been the one to suggest to Peter the idea of getting a drink together as payment for saving his life. He'd was too shocked to do anything else but nod along.
"Well...this is a pretty weird situation." Peter said eventually.
"Oh? How so? We're just two people sharing a drink while sitting on top of a billboard and at risk from falling due to an errant wind. I thought that was what the kids were into nowadays?"
"I wouldn't know." Peter shrugged awkwardly. This was...wrong. If Gwen knew he was here she would've freaked out. He knew enough about Gwen after weeks of living with her to know that she was overprotective to a fault. It was difficult to see sometimes, but it was definitely there: she'd always enter rooms first and take a quick glance around, she'd check in on her friends every couple of hours under the guise of being bored, and bailed on at least one job when Betty needed her help (turned out it was just to bathe Murderface).
And then there were the spiders.
He noticed them a couple of weeks in. At first he thought that the apartment just had an infestation problem and he didn't say anything; he and Aunt May dealt with the same for a while. But then he noticed they were everywhere from Gwen's band practice to being on MJ's shoulder (which she either didn't notice or care about) when she went out on a food run.
He asked Betty about it later and told him it was how Gwen kept an eye on them. He didn't know the exact science - he was interested, but Gwen didn't know so he couldn't her - but from what he gathered they were basically organic sensors like the automated spider bots Pavitr made to keep track of the web in Loomworld. Sometimes she saw Gwen nodding off and it didn't take long to figure that was her keeping an ear open.
So far he hadn't gotten any on him, though he chalked that up to the fact that he could take care of himself. That and he doubted those things could stick around if he went webswinging.
"You're not as talkative as you seem on the television." Murderdock (sounded like a hashtag) took a sip of of his soda and hummed, "Of course that could be simply because you don't like me. Am I correct?"
"Kinda?" God, this was so weird, "I mean, you never did anything to me, but I heard about you from Gwen." Murderer, criminal Kingpin, the reason her dad went into a coma, the guy who tried to turn her to the dark side...there was a lot of baggage there; and that was with Gwen giving him the cliff notes version. He was sure the guy did a lot more, "Pretty sure I should be taking you to prison."
"On what charges?" He tilted his head and smiled, "Technically speaking there's no warrant out for my arrest due to me giving up information on the Hand and Mr. Fisk's activities. I should actually be under witness protection, but I decided to forgo that: no amount of hidden identities and hiding under rocks will keep the Hand from coming after me, so I figured I'd take the fight to them."
"That was what that was?"
"Yes. I've been dodging their assassins for the better part of the year." He swung his cane idly, "If it's not them then I have to contend with Mr. Fisk's attempts at retribution for my betrayal and even the occasional contractor. My head's at a premium, you see. I'm surprised Mr. Fisk's enforcers and the Hand aren't fighting each other for the pleasure of gutting me."
"Huh..." Peter looked down at the soda. His first instinct was to offer help but he squashed it down. Sounded like he was a bad guy who dug his own hole, "So...is it a good idea to be sitting here?"
"Hmm? Oh, of course. I doubt I'll be accosted till at least the next hour, give or take." He shrugged lightly, "That and your presence here is a bit of a deterrent. While I doubt you'll help me, they don't know that and it'll make them wary, so thank you."
"You're...welcome?" Never heard that before.
"Oh, but of course I must thank you," he continued cheerily, "You did save my life, after all, so if you need anything from me then please don't hesitate to ask."
He shouldn't have said anything, but for some reason he opened his mouth, "You heard about the Green Goblin attack?"
"Yes, you'd have to be living under a rock to not be. Spider-Man and Spider-Woman's first official team-up...well, the first fighting a villain that wasn't a complete joke." He finished off his soda and threw it down into the alley, "Why do you ask?"
"Well...Spider-Woman's been really worried. We took down the guy supplying him with stuff and took him to S.H.I.E.L.D. They were supposed to tell us what they knew so we could help, but they haven't said anything," This was wrong. He wasn't someone Peter should've been confessing to, but... "Gwen thinks they're sneaking behind our back because they think her old friend did it and they're cutting us out. I don't know what to do and-"
"And you believe a no good criminal like me would?" He chuckled softly, "Well, you wouldn't be wrong, and I'm well aware of Harold Osborn's little temper tantrum." He grinned, looking more and more like a shark who smelled blood, "The Osborn prince turned Goblin. Or was it Lizard? Hard to keep up. Did you know he attempted to murder Ms. Stacy purely to feed off his own insecurities?"
"Yeah, Gwen mentioned something like that..." Not in those words, but close enough.
"Probably in kinder terms. She always was biased towards those she loved." He hummed, "Well, admittedly my knowledge on this new Goblin is rather limited due to my own problems, but is it safe to assume that Ms. Stacy does not, in fact, believe that the man who aided a terrorist organization of his own free will could do any wrong?" His tone was dripping with mocking condescension by the end and Peter frowned.
"I don't think you have any room to talk."
"Who better to call out a criminal than another one?" he replied lightly, "Well, I suppose Ms. Stacy's well within her rights to be doubtful. Naive of her, but what can you do?" He shrugged, "Still, I do think I know what this favor of yours will be. You want my help to find out who's the man behind the Goblin, correct?"
Peter didn't reply. A part of him did think that it would work - after all, he couldn't have found Mr. Toomes' operation without that Aaron Davis guy giving him the info (though his badass interrogation skills probably helped). Still, that guy was just someone who held people up in alleys. This guy was the freaking Kingpin, the guy who made Gwen's life hell for almost a year.
"I'll take your silence as an affirmative," Murderdock said, "And I know this is impolite given that this is already me repaying a favor, but I need something in return from you."
"O-Oh, what? More ninjas?"
"No, those I could handle on my own. This is more a personal preference: don't tell Ms. Stacy about our meeting tonight." Peter blinked once, twice and opened his mouth. He didn't know how to respond to that, "I will do my best to help you, but if Ms. Stacy were to be made aware of my assistance then I doubt I'll get anywhere. If you wish to actually receive any help then let's keep this between us."
"You're asking me to lie to her." His grip on the can tightened.
"There's a difference between a lie and omission." Wow, he really was a lawyer, "Well, just think about it. I'll contact you when I can." He suddenly tossed something in the air and Peter automatically caught it. It was only a few seconds later that he realized it was his phone.
"When did you-"
"I'll see you soon, Spider-Man." With a cheeky grin, the blind(?) redhead flipped down into the alley below out of sight. Peter looked down at his phone and furrowed his brows at the new (unnamed) contact on his list. A part of him was tempted to delete it right then and there, but in the end he just stuck it into the pocket of his suit and sighed. This did not go how he thought it would.
"Peter, your heart rate is spiking," Karen 'helpfully' intoned.
"I'm fine." He stood up and took a deep breath, "I'm just...it's hard to say." It reminded him of his talk with Mr. Toomes. Back when he'd first put on the mask he thought the bad guys were just bad guys. He'd watched the Godfather films, but he always reminded himself that if you did bad then you were bad; it didn't matter if you were charming about it.
Now he just saved Gwen's arch-enemy and let him walk. Then again, the logical part of him reminded, what else were you gonna do? He said he didn't have any warrants out, and that was at least the truth. Gwen had once complained about it (after another botched job putting her in a bad mood) and how annoyed it made her that he just walked after everything he did.
Peter really didn't want to kill him either - that alien guy torturing Dr. Strange and Thanos were extreme circumstances. Still, letting him just walk off felt wrong, even if he was 'harmless' now.
Sighing, Peter stood up, pulled down his mask and swung back into the direction of Queens. Gwen was visiting her dad, but he really didn't want to to talk to her - at least not yet. He needed advice, and he did't want to go back to Loomworld for it.
Ten minutes later and he was in front of the Parker's house, full costume and all. Thankfully the street was deserted, so he didn't have to worry about anyone peeking. Peter gulped somewhat nervously and knocked on the door. He'd visited Ben and May - no aunt and uncle - occasionally throughout the weeks. It was kinda awkward, as expected, but it was getting better. He wasn't their nephew, but that didn't mean he couldn't be friends with them.
Ben was the one who answered the door. He blinked in surprise at the sight of the fully costumed Spider-Man in his doorstep before he smiled warmly, "A hero at our doorstep. What's the occasion?"
"Don't need one to visit friends." Ben let him in and Peter took off his mask, his hair immediately coming up in messy tufts. Sometimes he was really jealous that Gwen's symbiote just let her change her clothes to whatever she wanted. No need to lug around a backpack or anything, "Where's May?" he asked lightly. He'd need them both for this.
"Oh, she's in the kitchen with one of your Spider friends."
"Uh...what?"
Peter peeked his head into the kitchen where, sure enough, May was cooking dinner with another figure beside her. At first glance he thought it was Noir - wearing black and all - but eventually his mind caught up to the fact that he was way too short and the jacket wasn't nearly as long for it. That and he was smiling. Awkwardly, yeah, but still smiling. Noir didn't smile; he grimaced.
May turned to look at him and her expression brightened, "Oh, Peter! What a nice surprise!" She wiped her hands and gave him a quick hug. May Parker was a huggy person, that was apparently constant throughout the multiverse, "I met your friend here earlier when I went shopping and he offered to help me carry my bags."
"Then I called her May by accident and she kinda figured it out." The other Spider laughed softly. Looking closer, Peter definitely recognized him: the Spider-Man with the guns talking with another Spider-Gwen (she still hated the name) back then, "You can call me Ben. It's...convenient." Also the name of his dead uncle, but he didn't say anything about that.
"Right..." Peter shook his hand, "So...you stuck here too?"
"Thankfully not. No offense to this place, but I've had my share of being stuck in Madhouses." He waved a hand through the air, "Got into a bit of trouble back in my place and ended up here. I should be able to get back in a few when Gwen or Cin realize what's happened and track me. Till then I'm just waiting around and May invited me over for a bit."
"Cool."
Peter helped set the dishes (he couldn't cook to save his life) and soon enough all four of them were sat at the dinner table with a generous helping of roasted chicken. His Aunt May couldn't cook much. That was something Ben always did, which he used to tease her about. After the meatloaf incident and setting off the fire alarm they kinda figured takeout would be dinner from then on.
"So how's that website treating you?" May smiled.
"Website?" Younger Ben asked.
"Oh, it was Betty's idea. It was pretty hard to get bills for a bit because of, well, a lot of stuff, so she thought that maybe Gwen and me could be Heroes for Hire. You know, do stuff like taking selfies or bodyguard work. The non-critical stuff. Gwen did it just to shut Betty up and but then we got so many requests that Gwen had to take a break from college to even keep up."
And things were getting more and more complicated. Now Betty actually hired someone (as in, someone other than her Law college buddies) to draft up actual contracts so there wouldn't be any backlash or someone couldn't rip them off. Oh, and taxes, cause not even Spider-Woman could swing away from the IRS. They were as scary as Baskin Robbins about always finding out.
"Huh, that's pretty smart." Younger Ben nodded, "She ever think about merchandising? That's how Gwen - uh, my Gwen - gets a lot of her stuff."
"Oh, Betty actually checked in on that, but apparently Tony Stark got her licensing since Spider-Woman was public domain for a while." The year in prison probably didn't help, "It's cool. We're making enough to pay the rent and buy corndogs."
"You know, I should really teach either of you to start cooking one of these days. Even if you have superpowers eating all that junk food can't be healthy." May huffed lightly.
"So, you're Spider-Man where you're from?" Peter asked to the Spider sitting across from him.
"More or less, though Brant doesn't think I'm very 'spider-y'." He shrugged, "You said you were trapped here?"
"Yeah, that's...kind of a long story." And one he didn't wanna repeat. He just hoped it ended with Thanos being on the other end of that glove, "I kinda can't go back because if I do I end up turning into dust. That's not a hyperbole or anything; literal dust."
"Ain't the weirdest thing I've heard." He shrugged again, "So you're staying with Gwen?"
"Yeah. It was...a bit of a surprise when we ran into them at the hospital," Older Ben said somewhat awkwardly, "It was the first time we found out there were other universes. Sometimes I still can't believe it."
"Yeah, you and me both." Peter's smile was equally awkward. Still, he definitely didn't regret coming here, even if the start of it wasn't the best, "So...I actually came here because I wanted some advice and I didn't know who else I could ask."
"Knew you were being fidgety," Younger Ben said, "Should I go?"
"N-No, it's cool! Maybe you could help too."
"What's on your mind, Peter?" May asked in that reassuring way of hers.
"Alright, it's just..." Peter took a slow, deep breath, "Imagine your friend is worried about something really bad, so bad that sometimes they can't even sleep at night, and then you find a way that maybe you can help them...but the way you can do it isn't the best."
"How do you mean 'not the best'?" Older Ben asked.
"I mean, maybe Gw- they get freaked out and might not trust you again?" Okay, maybe that was exaggerating it a bit, but something told him that Gwen would not be happy if she found out he was talking to Matt Murderdock behind her back. Probably not enough to not trust him ever again, but still.
"And...what exactly is Gwen worried about?" Younger Ben raised a brow.
Peter didn't bother to deflect the question. He didn't exactly do the best job lying, "It's...It's about her friend. Harry." He told them everything. The Goblin, finding that Tinkerer guy with Shadowcat and then the days - weeks - of absolute silence. The website kept them all busy, but during their occasional lulls Gwen's mind always came back to what might've happened to her friend.
And then he told them about Murderdock.
"Osborn got himself in trouble again. Why am I not surprised?" Younger Ben rolled his eyes, "So, Gwen here thinks that her best friend did no wrong?"
"I...guess?" Yeesh, what was with this Harry guy? First Murderdock and now weird Dark Spidey, "Well, like I said Gwen's getting kinda worried that S.H.I.E.L.D's going behind her back and, you know, I wanna help fix that."
"But to do that you need to work together with this Matt Murdock person?" May asked. Peter nodded, "Well, I can't say I disagree with why you want to do it. Still, this Murdock person...I wasn't there to see the full brunt of it, but she told us enough. Even if you could solve her problem this way I don't think Gwen would be happy; especially if you had to go behind her back to do it."
"Yeah. Trust me, kid, Matt isn't the kind of devil you wanna make a deal with. Always ends badly," Younger Ben added.
"So...you guys think I shouldn't take it?" It wasn't exactly a hard sell. He'd already considered just deleting the number the entire swing over- or at the very least telling Gwen about what happened. Sure, the idea of finding something to help her was tempting, but so was keeping what happened back home for Gwen and she didn't take it...for too long. She was honest with him, why couldn't he be honest with her?
"I think that this choice is something you both have to make," Older Ben said, "Neither of you have to carry anything on your shoulders. You're partners, right?"
"Right..." Partners, friends, more than that...it just came to him that they hadn't told anyone else about their little moment back at their apartment. He was pretty sure Betty would start teasing him the second she woke up, but for everyone else...well, the fact that Gwen was already bracing herself for MJ's reaction didn't spell good things. Apparently the redhead knew just what buttons to push from her.
"...Hey, your Gwen's got one of those portal watches, doesn't she?" Younger Ben suddenly asked.
"Uh, yeah. Why?"
"Well, if it's working then I could get back home quicker. I'm late enough as it is and I promised Cin I'd help her babysit that little hellion of hers." He stood up and looked at Ben and May in turn, "Thanks for the hospitality, both of you."
"No problem." May waved him off and smiled.
"Good luck." Ben clapped his shoulder.
Peter said his goodbyes to them too (though not before they gave him some of Ben's spare clothes) and the pair of Spiders took the slow walk to the house next door. They were barely past the curb onto the street when Younger Ben suddenly spoke out, "So, you and Gwen are together."
"H-Huh?" Peter almost jumped at the sudden query, "How...How did you know?"
"I didn't, but that reaction makes it obvious." Peter almost wanted to scream at the cliche movie line, "Can't say I'm surprised, and I can't exactly throw stones. You ain't the first trapped Spider who got caught up in that web."
"Wait, so you're dating Gwen too? In your world, I mean?"
"Yeah, but it...wasn't an easy road. Like I said, I got experience being stuck in Madhouses." He waved a hand through the air and sighed, "I didn't say much back in the house, but...whatever thoughts you have about doing something 'for her own good', leave it. That kind of thing never ends well."
"I know." Peter breathed out softly rolled up the sleeves of Ben's flannel shirt. He felt small in it, like he was a kid again who snuck into his Uncle's closet because he wanted to be an adult. Seeing the Ben Parker here still hurt sometimes. It was like he was staring at a constant reminder of his mistake. He quickly reminded himself that it was a two way street for them too and they and Gwen didn't judge him for it, so why should he?
"You're smarter than me then." He let out a wry laugh and pulled out a cigarette from his pocket. Peter gave him a wary, sideways look as he lit it, "...What?"
"Nothing, just...don't like smoking." Uncle Ben did it a few times and Aunt May never let him hear the end of it, saying that she wanted to grow old with him and didn't want to hear any news of lung cancer. If he were more depressed he would've made a crack about not having to worry about it now.
"Says the guy who runs around beating on criminals." He grunted, "Don't worry, I'll be out of your hair soon anyway." He took a puff of the cancer stick (as Aunt May always called them) and blew it up in the air, "...Hey, if you decide to get Matt's help, make sure to keep him at arm's reach. The blind bastard can be helpful, but only if you don't let him in. Cause that's when he starts tugging on your strings."
"You sound like you're speaking from experience."
"More or less. Hopefully the one over here ain't got a demon inside him."
Peter didn't respond to that and just knocked on Gwen's door. It took a few seconds before Gwen opened the door with a wide smile, which quickly turned to confusion when she caught sight of the third Spider, "Hey, Pete. Uh...friend of yours?" She puckered her lips slightly at the sight of the burning cigarette. The loose shirt, shorts and flip flops made it clear she planned to sleep over instead of going back to the apartment.
"Just someone passing through," Ben said, "You're the Spider-Woman from this world, right? I got detoured here and I'd appreciate it if I could use your portal gizmo to go back to my place. "
"So you're another 'visitor'. Huh, we've been getting a lot of those lately." She side-stepped to let them pass, "Well, come in. Let's open the portal in the backyard so we can have some room. You can stay in the couch, Pete, just don't make too much noise. Dad's sleeping."
He said his goodbyes to Ben and sat awkwardly at the forest green loveseat, just thinking on what he could do. Should he just tell Gwen straight out and say sorry? Or should he ease her in, maybe make a few jokes and then, surprise, he accidentally saved her arch-enemy!
"Ugh..." He put on his mask and activated Karen, "What do I do, Karen?"
"I believe the advice of those three were are the most appropriate. Gwen was honest with you despite her initial hesitation and I believe it's only fair that you reciprocate that trust. Whatever you decide, however, I will support you."
"Thanks, Karen." A pause, "...If I did lie to her, would you be disappointed?"
"Yes, very much so," she said without any hesitation. Peter was torn between flinching and laughing, "I would stay up all night wondering where I went wrong and debating whether it was too late for you to turn around."
"Uh..."
"I would then reminisce about how much you changed from the innocent little boy who still struggled to ask out his crush and just wanted to impress Mr. Stark into someone who'd lie to someone who he'd spent an inordinate amount of time debating on whether he should kiss her; even though she so obviously liked him back. They grow up so fast, don't they? Innocence so quickly lost and discarded like-"
"Alright, alright!" He took off the mask right as she was saying something about 'Vivian'. Did Mr. Stark program her to be more sarcastic or did she pick that up from somewhere else? She was hanging around Betty a bit too much these past few weeks to Peter's liking.
Eventually after a couple of minutes Gwen walked in, "Sent him back." Before Peter could say anything she suddenly sat right next to him and put her head on his shoulder. It was somewhat awkward since they were practically the same height, though it didn't take them long to adjust. Spider-powers and all, "I swear, my life's gotten way crazier ever since you showed up, Pete."
"S-Sorry." He looked down at his lap.
"...Hey, you know I'm just kidding, right?" Her breath tickled his neck as she leaned in closer, "Is this...alright? Sorry, I've never actually dated anyone before so I'm pretty rusty on the whole touchy feely thing."
"R-Really?" He would've thought she'd been on at least a few dates considering she was...her.
"Yep. Didn't really care about it back in high school and after that... I was busy." Trying to make up for something that wasn't even her fault. Peter kept quiet and waited for her to continue, "I mean, I could've dated after the whole year in prison thing, but...well, year in prison. Pretty sure that wouldn't look very good on a dating profile."
"You could also put Superhero. That'd get you a lot of admirers..." he mumbled.
"Pretty sure I'd just get weirdos who wanted to date someone with superpowers and never want me to take the suit off." She snorted and adjusted her position to something more comfortable, "Did I tell you about that high school kid who wanted me to be his date for Spring Formal? And I mean he wanted me to go as Spider-Woman cause 'the site says we do anything'. Seriously."
"You didn't accept, right?" The thought of someone asking Gwen out almost made him frown. Almost. He managed to rein it in.
"Nope." She snorted, "I'm pretty sure there's an 'I refuse to be armcandy' clause in the contracts Betty printed up. We can still do it, but it's not part of our contract. You should know considering you were making kissy faces at Ms. Patsy Walker."
"That was-"
"I'm just joshin' ya, Pete." She rolled her eyes and picked up one of the unopened cans of soda on the table. He just looked at her and tried to ignore the dryness in his tongue. Just tell her now, he screamed internally, tell her now before it gets worse. He balled his hands into tight fists, took a deep breath and asked.
"You heard anything from Shadowcat?"
Her lax smile faded and she looked down at the can of soda, "Nope, still nothing." She sighed, "Been trying to call Mr. Osborn too, but no dice. It's...It's bugging the hell out of me, Pete. I mean I get why Shadowcat wants to cut me out, but why Mr. Osborn? I saved Harry's life! Twice! You'd think a guy would get that I didn't want to just put him in a jail cell or something..."
"Yeah..." Peter took a deep breath. Now or never, "So, um...what would you say if, hypothetically, I could just maybe get some information on the impostor?"
"I'd say you're being too nervous for hypotheticals and tell you to spit it out." Peter winced. Why did everyone always read him like an open book? "...What's wrong?"
"I...may or may not have saved your arch-enemy's life?" She blinked and said nothing, "Matt Murderdock, I mean. I...saved his life."
He told her everything. Going on patrol after waking up, saving Murderdock's life from those ninjas, the talk they had at that billboard, and the deal. Gwen didn't say anything and just let him ramble. Peter just looked down at his wrung hands and refused to look up. He didn't look up - he felt too guilty.
To her credit, Gwen didn't absolutely freak out at that. The blonde separated from him (he didn't say anything about how cold it suddenly was without her next to him) and when he finally face her she gave him a flat look, lips pursed and a single brow raised. They stayed in the absolute quiet for at least a minute before she stood and went for the kitchen without a single word uttered between them.
Peter didn't chase after her. He just looked down at the ground again guiltily and refused to move for several minutes. Of course she'd be angry. Why wouldn't she? That guy made her life absolute hell and he was the reason her dad was in the hospital for so long. Of course she'd hate him for saving him, of course she'd-
"Hey, sorry about that." Gwen suddenly re-entered the room and plopped down next to him. There was a packet of corndogs in her hands, "Just wanted to get some corndogs. I was hungry."
"W-Wait, you're not angry?"
"Uh...why would I be? It's not like you did anything wrong." She offered him a corndog, which he took after a moment of reluctance. She took a generous bite of one and scooted till their shoulders were touching again, "I mean I am kinda cheesed he's still running around, but all you did was save a guy you saw being assaulted by ninjas. Not like you offered to be to be his peter Superhero or something."
"I...guess so?" He spun the stick between his fingers awkwardly. This was not how he expected it to go, "I thought you'd be mad considering the deal-"
"Which you didn't take," she interrupted forcefully. Peter looked at her again and she smiled warmly at him, "Seriously, Pete, you need to lighten up. Murderdock made you a deal and you didn't take it. Simple as that."
"But...if I did take the deal, would you have been angry?"
"You mean if you did sneak with that asshole behind my back 'for my own good'? Absolutely. I would've gone apeshit." The cheery way she said that creeped him out just a bit, "But you didn't, that's the point. You could have acted like an idiot and you didn't, so why would I be angry? Besides-" she sagged slightly on the cushions, "I don't exactly have any room to talk considering I almost lied to you about your world. Hell, I should be apologizing to you for waiting so long when you told me immediately!"
"It's alright! I mean, you just wanted to-"
"It doesn't matter what I wanted. Point is I lied to you and I waited a week before telling you anything. You waited, what, 30 minutes? It's not exactly comparable." She laughed softly. There was a hint of bitterness in the gesture, "But seriously, stop worrying. Murderdock made you a deal and you didn't take it. You did better than I did." Her lips curled in a frown. He hated seeing her like that, "At least you didn't-"
He kissed her again. He didn't know what made him suddenly so brave, but in the end they were making out - yes, you read that right, making out - on the couch. Gwen closed her eyes and let him push her down onto her back. She was warm. That was the only thing he could focus on as his hands trailed under the hem or her shirt to rub her warm, warm, warm skin.
Their lips separated with a soft pop and Gwen gasped, "Peter..." Her hands settled on her sides. Peter's cheeks burned and he swallowed nervously at the sight of her red face and strangled breaths. She was always so cool and confident, seeing her like this was-
"Gwen..." He leaned down to kiss her again before she grabbed his shoulder and shook her head. He was almost hurt before she said her next words.
"Pete...my dad's upstairs."
He suddenly felt like he'd been doused in ice cold water. Her dad, the police chief who probably woke up from every little noise, was right upstairs. Peter practically jumped back away from Gwen and almost fell off the couch entirely when his back bumped against the armrest.
The blonde raised a brow as she sat up, "Alright, I didn't think that'd suddenly make you think I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, but whatever." She actually sounded kinda miffed. Peter opened his mouth to defend himself before she suddenly laughed, "I'm kidding! Geez, you really need to learn to take a joke."
"So...you're not mad?"
"Considering we were making out on the couch five seconds ago? You tell me." She stood up and stretched her arms above her head with a short groan, "Ugh, we wasted the corndogs." She looked down at the spilled corndogs and (very regretfully) put them in a plastic bag for disposal, "You wanna go get something to eat? My treat. I did a job a couple of days ago and there's this new burger place that opened up."
"W-Wait." He grabbed her hand and she looked down at him curiously, "Wh-What do we do about Murderdock? He still has my number, and he probably knows how to contact me somehow." He doubted that guy would just wait for Peter to make the first move and call him first.
"Then we'll meet him together." She pulled him up, "Easy as that. Trust me, without his goons or the Hand backing him he's not exactly a threat now. If he tries anything I'll kick his ass and feed him those shades of his. And about Harry...I'll call Cap. I didn't want to cause she might hold it over me, but if I don't get any updates at the end of the week I'll ask for a favor. Better than nothing."
"Okay..." He paused before asking his next question, "Hey, if you found Murderdock when he needed help...what would you have done?"
"I'd...probably have let the ninjas have at him." She licked her lips, "That doesn't sound very heroic of me, does it?"
"It's pretty fair considering what he did to you. I'd probably have done the same thing." He didn't like killing people, but there was a reason Mr. Stark put the instant kill mode there. Sometimes it did just come down to your or them.
He liked to think the best of people, but even people he saved like Mr. Toomes tried to bury him alive in that warehouse; Mr. Toomes couldn't have known he'd pull through. And for what? To take of his family. They didn't look like they were struggling in that fancy house and car of theirs. Mr. Toomes made more than enough to take care of his family and he just got greedy and couldn't stop. For all his justifications about just wanting to care for his family, he was just a criminal in the end.
Murderdock was probably the same if what Gwen said was right. Just a petty person who refused to admit he was anything more than that.
They ended up at the burger place in no time flat. The two of them took a corner table and Gwen dug into her triple burger happily, "Oh my God, this is the best feeling in the world." Gwen moaned, "We gotta come back here next payday with the others."
"Yeah." He took a bit of his comparatively smaller burger and hummed, "So...are we going to tell them? You know, about us?"
She set her burger down and downed half the soda in one go, "I...guess so. I mean I don't see any point in hiding it or anything. It's just...man, MJ's gonna absolutely hold it over my head. Did you know she's been teasing me that we 'so obviously had it bad for each other'?"
"Actually, no." That might've explained the occasional smirks she gave when he and Gwen were talking, though.
"Oh, and of course Glory's gonna go all band mom and start grilling us about if we're sure this is what we want or if we even thought about the whole alternate dimension thing and bla bla bla."
"Yeah..." Sometimes, for just a bit, he forgot about Thanos and his world. And then it all came crashing crashing back down, "Fighting Thanos is gonna be hard."
"I'll be there with you, so no worries there." He looked at her in surprise and she raised a brow, "What, did you think I'd let you fight that big purple bastard on your own? Not a chance. Me and the rest of the Web Warriors have your back. No Spider left behind."
"I...thanks." He didn't cry, he just...maybe sniffled a bit. Gwen and the others had done so much for him: giving him a place to stay, trying to help him find his way back home, and now they were willing to fight a guy who killed off half the universe, "I'm...I'm really happy I ended up here. I promise I'll pay you and the others back for all the help you gave me."
"You don't have to." Gwen leaned forward and took his left hand in her right. She smiled, "You helped me out too, you know. I was...in a really bad place for a while there. If you weren't here I might've started shutting out Betty and the others, so I don't want you to feel like you owe me anything, alright? We're partners, we've got each other's backs..."
They didn't kiss again, but the warmth from her hand was enough for him. Peter smiled back just as bright and didn't notice the clicks of the camera across the street and the paparazzi speeding away on a bike.
As mentioned above, this took some major re-writing in dealing with Matt. In the original chapter Peter did accept the deal on the basis that it would be fine so long as Gwen didn't find out and it was for her sake. This would've led to Gwen inevitably finding out in the next chapters and their relationship stalling cause Peter went behind her back in a major way.
And then I realized , no, MCU absolutely would not do this and compromise Gwen's trust since he's not like Noir. So I had to delete all of that and start over from scratch where Peter is much more torn and ultimately decides he likes (loves?) Gwen and he's not gonna play grabass with her arch-enemy behind her back. It lacks the dramatic 'how could you?!' kick, but it does feel far more sensible and in-character. Apologies for people wanting more drama.
As mentioned above, the next chapter will hopefully be much lighter and deal with the fallout of Peter and Gwen getting caught making kissy faces by the paparrazi. Granted MCU's secret identity is already paper thin as it is, but now they have confirmation. Oh, and of course MCU getting a lot of hate from Gwen's not-so-secret admirers given how popular she is with certain parts of the NYC population.
...Oh, and random Looking Glass Noir cameo cause I'm feeling vain. It'll be the last one, I promise. I just added him in cause I thought it was unfair that Two Spiders Gwen got to talk with Looking Glass Gwen while MCU had to deal with grouchy canon Noir.
Questions:
1. For a date chapter between Gwen and MCU, what would you guys want? I'm torn between them doing something normal couples would do like a walk in the park, movies or going to the beach vs them doing something in-costume as Spider-Man and Spider-Woman. What do you guys think, normal or superhero?
Anyway, 14 days till Endgame
After that I can start adding some more MCU characters for the fic and decide if I wanna follow Endgame's plot exactly or completely branch off to make this its own thing.Oh, and since some people were confused: No, Gwen and MCU did not have sex in the last chapter. Peter was mentioned as still wearing his full costume sans mask and unless they did it right through the underoos, I think it's safe to say that cherry hasn't been popped yet.
Chapter 14: Talking like healthy human beings
So...he was having soda with Gwen's arch-enemy.
Peter sipped at the still far too sweet soda and clicked his heels against the surface of the billboard. The same billboard that had Peter Parker's face in it just a few months ago. According to Gwen after she went to prison - which he still couldn't believe anyone would do to someone like her - Mayor Jameson went on an about face because he didn't want to acknowledge that he'd jumped the gun and blamed a grieving woman for murdering her own best friend.
So, now the billboard was just about some kind of soda that probably led to the rise of diabetes cases.
"You're very quiet, Mr. Parker." Matt Murderdock (to quote Gwen) said idly. He sat next to Peter a fair distance away, one hand holding onto a can of soda and the other twirling his bloodstained walking stick idly. He'd been the one to suggest to Peter the idea of getting a drink together as payment for saving his life. He'd was too shocked to do anything else but nod along.
"Well...this is a pretty weird situation." Peter said eventually.
"Oh? How so? We're just two people sharing a drink while sitting on top of a billboard and at risk from falling due to an errant wind. I thought that was what the kids were into nowadays?"
"I wouldn't know." Peter shrugged awkwardly. This was...wrong. If Gwen knew he was here she would've freaked out. He knew enough about Gwen after weeks of living with her to know that she was overprotective to a fault. It was difficult to see sometimes, but it was definitely there: she'd always enter rooms first and take a quick glance around, she'd check in on her friends every couple of hours under the guise of being bored, and bailed on at least one job when Betty needed her help (turned out it was just to bathe Murderface).
And then there were the spiders.
He noticed them a couple of weeks in. At first he thought that the apartment just had an infestation problem and he didn't say anything; he and Aunt May dealt with the same for a while. But then he noticed they were everywhere from Gwen's band practice to being on MJ's shoulder (which she either didn't notice or care about) when she went out on a food run.
He asked Betty about it later and told him it was how Gwen kept an eye on them. He didn't know the exact science - he was interested, but Gwen didn't know so he couldn't her - but from what he gathered they were basically organic sensors like the automated spider bots Pavitr made to keep track of the web in Loomworld. Sometimes she saw Gwen nodding off and it didn't take long to figure that was her keeping an ear open.
So far he hadn't gotten any on him, though he chalked that up to the fact that he could take care of himself. That and he doubted those things could stick around if he went webswinging.
"You're not as talkative as you seem on the television." Murderdock (sounded like a hashtag) took a sip of of his soda and hummed, "Of course that could be simply because you don't like me. Am I correct?"
"Kinda?" God, this was so weird, "I mean, you never did anything to me, but I heard about you from Gwen." Murderer, criminal Kingpin, the reason her dad went into a coma, the guy who tried to turn her to the dark side...there was a lot of baggage there; and that was with Gwen giving him the cliff notes version. He was sure the guy did a lot more, "Pretty sure I should be taking you to prison."
"On what charges?" He tilted his head and smiled, "Technically speaking there's no warrant out for my arrest due to me giving up information on the Hand and Mr. Fisk's activities. I should actually be under witness protection, but I decided to forgo that: no amount of hidden identities and hiding under rocks will keep the Hand from coming after me, so I figured I'd take the fight to them."
"That was what that was?"
"Yes. I've been dodging their assassins for the better part of the year." He swung his cane idly, "If it's not them then I have to contend with Mr. Fisk's attempts at retribution for my betrayal and even the occasional contractor. My head's at a premium, you see. I'm surprised Mr. Fisk's enforcers and the Hand aren't fighting each other for the pleasure of gutting me."
"Huh..." Peter looked down at the soda. His first instinct was to offer help but he squashed it down. Sounded like he was a bad guy who dug his own hole, "So...is it a good idea to be sitting here?"
"Hmm? Oh, of course. I doubt I'll be accosted till at least the next hour, give or take." He shrugged lightly, "That and your presence here is a bit of a deterrent. While I doubt you'll help me, they don't know that and it'll make them wary, so thank you."
"You're...welcome?" Never heard that before.
"Oh, but of course I must thank you," he continued cheerily, "You did save my life, after all, so if you need anything from me then please don't hesitate to ask."
He shouldn't have said anything, but for some reason he opened his mouth, "You heard about the Green Goblin attack?"
"Yes, you'd have to be living under a rock to not be. Spider-Man and Spider-Woman's first official team-up...well, the first fighting a villain that wasn't a complete joke." He finished off his soda and threw it down into the alley, "Why do you ask?"
"Well...Spider-Woman's been really worried. We took down the guy supplying him with stuff and took him to S.H.I.E.L.D. They were supposed to tell us what they knew so we could help, but they haven't said anything," This was wrong. He wasn't someone Peter should've been confessing to, but... "Gwen thinks they're sneaking behind our back because they think her old friend did it and they're cutting us out. I don't know what to do and-"
"And you believe a no good criminal like me would?" He chuckled softly, "Well, you wouldn't be wrong, and I'm well aware of Harold Osborn's little temper tantrum." He grinned, looking more and more like a shark who smelled blood, "The Osborn prince turned Goblin. Or was it Lizard? Hard to keep up. Did you know he attempted to murder Ms. Stacy purely to feed off his own insecurities?"
"Yeah, Gwen mentioned something like that..." Not in those words, but close enough.
"Probably in kinder terms. She always was biased towards those she loved." He hummed, "Well, admittedly my knowledge on this new Goblin is rather limited due to my own problems, but is it safe to assume that Ms. Stacy does not, in fact, believe that the man who aided a terrorist organization of his own free will could do any wrong?" His tone was dripping with mocking condescension by the end and Peter frowned.
"I don't think you have any room to talk."
"Who better to call out a criminal than another one?" he replied lightly, "Well, I suppose Ms. Stacy's well within her rights to be doubtful. Naive of her, but what can you do?" He shrugged, "Still, I do think I know what this favor of yours will be. You want my help to find out who's the man behind the Goblin, correct?"
Peter didn't reply. A part of him did think that it would work - after all, he couldn't have found Mr. Toomes' operation without that Aaron Davis guy giving him the info (though his badass interrogation skills probably helped). Still, that guy was just someone who held people up in alleys. This guy was the freaking Kingpin, the guy who made Gwen's life hell for almost a year.
"I'll take your silence as an affirmative," Murderdock said, "And I know this is impolite given that this is already me repaying a favor, but I need something in return from you."
"O-Oh, what? More ninjas?"
"No, those I could handle on my own. This is more a personal preference: don't tell Ms. Stacy about our meeting tonight." Peter blinked once, twice and opened his mouth. He didn't know how to respond to that, "I will do my best to help you, but if Ms. Stacy were to be made aware of my assistance then I doubt I'll get anywhere. If you wish to actually receive any help then let's keep this between us."
"You're asking me to lie to her." His grip on the can tightened.
"There's a difference between a lie and omission." Wow, he really was a lawyer, "Well, just think about it. I'll contact you when I can." He suddenly tossed something in the air and Peter automatically caught it. It was only a few seconds later that he realized it was his phone.
"When did you-"
"I'll see you soon, Spider-Man." With a cheeky grin, the blind(?) redhead flipped down into the alley below out of sight. Peter looked down at his phone and furrowed his brows at the new (unnamed) contact on his list. A part of him was tempted to delete it right then and there, but in the end he just stuck it into the pocket of his suit and sighed. This did not go how he thought it would.
"Peter, your heart rate is spiking," Karen 'helpfully' intoned.
"I'm fine." He stood up and took a deep breath, "I'm just...it's hard to say." It reminded him of his talk with Mr. Toomes. Back when he'd first put on the mask he thought the bad guys were just bad guys. He'd watched the Godfather films, but he always reminded himself that if you did bad then you were bad; it didn't matter if you were charming about it.
Now he just saved Gwen's arch-enemy and let him walk. Then again, the logical part of him reminded, what else were you gonna do? He said he didn't have any warrants out, and that was at least the truth. Gwen had once complained about it (after another botched job putting her in a bad mood) and how annoyed it made her that he just walked after everything he did.
Peter really didn't want to kill him either - that alien guy torturing Dr. Strange and Thanos were extreme circumstances. Still, letting him just walk off felt wrong, even if he was 'harmless' now.
Sighing, Peter stood up, pulled down his mask and swung back into the direction of Queens. Gwen was visiting her dad, but he really didn't want to to talk to her - at least not yet. He needed advice, and he did't want to go back to Loomworld for it.
Ten minutes later and he was in front of the Parker's house, full costume and all. Thankfully the street was deserted, so he didn't have to worry about anyone peeking. Peter gulped somewhat nervously and knocked on the door. He'd visited Ben and May - no aunt and uncle - occasionally throughout the weeks. It was kinda awkward, as expected, but it was getting better. He wasn't their nephew, but that didn't mean he couldn't be friends with them.
Ben was the one who answered the door. He blinked in surprise at the sight of the fully costumed Spider-Man in his doorstep before he smiled warmly, "A hero at our doorstep. What's the occasion?"
"Don't need one to visit friends." Ben let him in and Peter took off his mask, his hair immediately coming up in messy tufts. Sometimes he was really jealous that Gwen's symbiote just let her change her clothes to whatever she wanted. No need to lug around a backpack or anything, "Where's May?" he asked lightly. He'd need them both for this.
"Oh, she's in the kitchen with one of your Spider friends."
"Uh...what?"
Peter peeked his head into the kitchen where, sure enough, May was cooking dinner with another figure beside her. At first glance he thought it was Noir - wearing black and all - but eventually his mind caught up to the fact that he was way too short and the jacket wasn't nearly as long for it. That and he was smiling. Awkwardly, yeah, but still smiling. Noir didn't smile; he grimaced.
May turned to look at him and her expression brightened, "Oh, Peter! What a nice surprise!" She wiped her hands and gave him a quick hug. May Parker was a huggy person, that was apparently constant throughout the multiverse, "I met your friend here earlier when I went shopping and he offered to help me carry my bags."
"Then I called her May by accident and she kinda figured it out." The other Spider laughed softly. Looking closer, Peter definitely recognized him: the Spider-Man with the guns talking with another Spider-Gwen (she still hated the name) back then, "You can call me Ben. It's...convenient." Also the name of his dead uncle, but he didn't say anything about that.
"Right..." Peter shook his hand, "So...you stuck here too?"
"Thankfully not. No offense to this place, but I've had my share of being stuck in Madhouses." He waved a hand through the air, "Got into a bit of trouble back in my place and ended up here. I should be able to get back in a few when Gwen or Cin realize what's happened and track me. Till then I'm just waiting around and May invited me over for a bit."
"Cool."
Peter helped set the dishes (he couldn't cook to save his life) and soon enough all four of them were sat at the dinner table with a generous helping of roasted chicken. His Aunt May couldn't cook much. That was something Ben always did, which he used to tease her about. After the meatloaf incident and setting off the fire alarm they kinda figured takeout would be dinner from then on.
"So how's that website treating you?" May smiled.
"Website?" Younger Ben asked.
"Oh, it was Betty's idea. It was pretty hard to get bills for a bit because of, well, a lot of stuff, so she thought that maybe Gwen and me could be Heroes for Hire. You know, do stuff like taking selfies or bodyguard work. The non-critical stuff. Gwen did it just to shut Betty up and but then we got so many requests that Gwen had to take a break from college to even keep up."
And things were getting more and more complicated. Now Betty actually hired someone (as in, someone other than her Law college buddies) to draft up actual contracts so there wouldn't be any backlash or someone couldn't rip them off. Oh, and taxes, cause not even Spider-Woman could swing away from the IRS. They were as scary as Baskin Robbins about always finding out.
"Huh, that's pretty smart." Younger Ben nodded, "She ever think about merchandising? That's how Gwen - uh, my Gwen - gets a lot of her stuff."
"Oh, Betty actually checked in on that, but apparently Tony Stark got her licensing since Spider-Woman was public domain for a while." The year in prison probably didn't help, "It's cool. We're making enough to pay the rent and buy corndogs."
"You know, I should really teach either of you to start cooking one of these days. Even if you have superpowers eating all that junk food can't be healthy." May huffed lightly.
"So, you're Spider-Man where you're from?" Peter asked to the Spider sitting across from him.
"More or less, though Brant doesn't think I'm very 'spider-y'." He shrugged, "You said you were trapped here?"
"Yeah, that's...kind of a long story." And one he didn't wanna repeat. He just hoped it ended with Thanos being on the other end of that glove, "I kinda can't go back because if I do I end up turning into dust. That's not a hyperbole or anything; literal dust."
"Ain't the weirdest thing I've heard." He shrugged again, "So you're staying with Gwen?"
"Yeah. It was...a bit of a surprise when we ran into them at the hospital," Older Ben said somewhat awkwardly, "It was the first time we found out there were other universes. Sometimes I still can't believe it."
"Yeah, you and me both." Peter's smile was equally awkward. Still, he definitely didn't regret coming here, even if the start of it wasn't the best, "So...I actually came here because I wanted some advice and I didn't know who else I could ask."
"Knew you were being fidgety," Younger Ben said, "Should I go?"
"N-No, it's cool! Maybe you could help too."
"What's on your mind, Peter?" May asked in that reassuring way of hers.
"Alright, it's just..." Peter took a slow, deep breath, "Imagine your friend is worried about something really bad, so bad that sometimes they can't even sleep at night, and then you find a way that maybe you can help them...but the way you can do it isn't the best."
"How do you mean 'not the best'?" Older Ben asked.
"I mean, maybe Gw- they get freaked out and might not trust you again?" Okay, maybe that was exaggerating it a bit, but something told him that Gwen would not be happy if she found out he was talking to Matt Murderdock behind her back. Probably not enough to not trust him ever again, but still.
"And...what exactly is Gwen worried about?" Younger Ben raised a brow.
Peter didn't bother to deflect the question. He didn't exactly do the best job lying, "It's...It's about her friend. Harry." He told them everything. The Goblin, finding that Tinkerer guy with Shadowcat and then the days - weeks - of absolute silence. The website kept them all busy, but during their occasional lulls Gwen's mind always came back to what might've happened to her friend.
And then he told them about Murderdock.
"Osborn got himself in trouble again. Why am I not surprised?" Younger Ben rolled his eyes, "So, Gwen here thinks that her best friend did no wrong?"
"I...guess?" Yeesh, what was with this Harry guy? First Murderdock and now weird Dark Spidey, "Well, like I said Gwen's getting kinda worried that S.H.I.E.L.D's going behind her back and, you know, I wanna help fix that."
"But to do that you need to work together with this Matt Murdock person?" May asked. Peter nodded, "Well, I can't say I disagree with why you want to do it. Still, this Murdock person...I wasn't there to see the full brunt of it, but she told us enough. Even if you could solve her problem this way I don't think Gwen would be happy; especially if you had to go behind her back to do it."
"Yeah. Trust me, kid, Matt isn't the kind of devil you wanna make a deal with. Always ends badly," Younger Ben added.
"So...you guys think I shouldn't take it?" It wasn't exactly a hard sell. He'd already considered just deleting the number the entire swing over- or at the very least telling Gwen about what happened. Sure, the idea of finding something to help her was tempting, but so was keeping what happened back home for Gwen and she didn't take it...for too long. She was honest with him, why couldn't he be honest with her?
"I think that this choice is something you both have to make," Older Ben said, "Neither of you have to carry anything on your shoulders. You're partners, right?"
"Right..." Partners, friends, more than that...it just came to him that they hadn't told anyone else about their little moment back at their apartment. He was pretty sure Betty would start teasing him the second she woke up, but for everyone else...well, the fact that Gwen was already bracing herself for MJ's reaction didn't spell good things. Apparently the redhead knew just what buttons to push from her.
"...Hey, your Gwen's got one of those portal watches, doesn't she?" Younger Ben suddenly asked.
"Uh, yeah. Why?"
"Well, if it's working then I could get back home quicker. I'm late enough as it is and I promised Cin I'd help her babysit that little hellion of hers." He stood up and looked at Ben and May in turn, "Thanks for the hospitality, both of you."
"No problem." May waved him off and smiled.
"Good luck." Ben clapped his shoulder.
Peter said his goodbyes to them too (though not before they gave him some of Ben's spare clothes) and the pair of Spiders took the slow walk to the house next door. They were barely past the curb onto the street when Younger Ben suddenly spoke out, "So, you and Gwen are together."
"H-Huh?" Peter almost jumped at the sudden query, "How...How did you know?"
"I didn't, but that reaction makes it obvious." Peter almost wanted to scream at the cliche movie line, "Can't say I'm surprised, and I can't exactly throw stones. You ain't the first trapped Spider who got caught up in that web."
"Wait, so you're dating Gwen too? In your world, I mean?"
"Yeah, but it...wasn't an easy road. Like I said, I got experience being stuck in Madhouses." He waved a hand through the air and sighed, "I didn't say much back in the house, but...whatever thoughts you have about doing something 'for her own good', leave it. That kind of thing never ends well."
"I know." Peter breathed out softly rolled up the sleeves of Ben's flannel shirt. He felt small in it, like he was a kid again who snuck into his Uncle's closet because he wanted to be an adult. Seeing the Ben Parker here still hurt sometimes. It was like he was staring at a constant reminder of his mistake. He quickly reminded himself that it was a two way street for them too and they and Gwen didn't judge him for it, so why should he?
"You're smarter than me then." He let out a wry laugh and pulled out a cigarette from his pocket. Peter gave him a wary, sideways look as he lit it, "...What?"
"Nothing, just...don't like smoking." Uncle Ben did it a few times and Aunt May never let him hear the end of it, saying that she wanted to grow old with him and didn't want to hear any news of lung cancer. If he were more depressed he would've made a crack about not having to worry about it now.
"Says the guy who runs around beating on criminals." He grunted, "Don't worry, I'll be out of your hair soon anyway." He took a puff of the cancer stick (as Aunt May always called them) and blew it up in the air, "...Hey, if you decide to get Matt's help, make sure to keep him at arm's reach. The blind bastard can be helpful, but only if you don't let him in. Cause that's when he starts tugging on your strings."
"You sound like you're speaking from experience."
"More or less. Hopefully the one over here ain't got a demon inside him."
Peter didn't respond to that and just knocked on Gwen's door. It took a few seconds before Gwen opened the door with a wide smile, which quickly turned to confusion when she caught sight of the third Spider, "Hey, Pete. Uh...friend of yours?" She puckered her lips slightly at the sight of the burning cigarette. The loose shirt, shorts and flip flops made it clear she planned to sleep over instead of going back to the apartment.
"Just someone passing through," Ben said, "You're the Spider-Woman from this world, right? I got detoured here and I'd appreciate it if I could use your portal gizmo to go back to my place. "
"So you're another 'visitor'. Huh, we've been getting a lot of those lately." She side-stepped to let them pass, "Well, come in. Let's open the portal in the backyard so we can have some room. You can stay in the couch, Pete, just don't make too much noise. Dad's sleeping."
He said his goodbyes to Ben and sat awkwardly at the forest green loveseat, just thinking on what he could do. Should he just tell Gwen straight out and say sorry? Or should he ease her in, maybe make a few jokes and then, surprise, he accidentally saved her arch-enemy!
"Ugh..." He put on his mask and activated Karen, "What do I do, Karen?"
"I believe the advice of those three were are the most appropriate. Gwen was honest with you despite her initial hesitation and I believe it's only fair that you reciprocate that trust. Whatever you decide, however, I will support you."
"Thanks, Karen." A pause, "...If I did lie to her, would you be disappointed?"
"Yes, very much so," she said without any hesitation. Peter was torn between flinching and laughing, "I would stay up all night wondering where I went wrong and debating whether it was too late for you to turn around."
"Uh..."
"I would then reminisce about how much you changed from the innocent little boy who still struggled to ask out his crush and just wanted to impress Mr. Stark into someone who'd lie to someone who he'd spent an inordinate amount of time debating on whether he should kiss her; even though she so obviously liked him back. They grow up so fast, don't they? Innocence so quickly lost and discarded like-"
"Alright, alright!" He took off the mask right as she was saying something about 'Vivian'. Did Mr. Stark program her to be more sarcastic or did she pick that up from somewhere else? She was hanging around Betty a bit too much these past few weeks to Peter's liking.
Eventually after a couple of minutes Gwen walked in, "Sent him back." Before Peter could say anything she suddenly sat right next to him and put her head on his shoulder. It was somewhat awkward since they were practically the same height, though it didn't take them long to adjust. Spider-powers and all, "I swear, my life's gotten way crazier ever since you showed up, Pete."
"S-Sorry." He looked down at his lap.
"...Hey, you know I'm just kidding, right?" Her breath tickled his neck as she leaned in closer, "Is this...alright? Sorry, I've never actually dated anyone before so I'm pretty rusty on the whole touchy feely thing."
"R-Really?" He would've thought she'd been on at least a few dates considering she was...her.
"Yep. Didn't really care about it back in high school and after that... I was busy." Trying to make up for something that wasn't even her fault. Peter kept quiet and waited for her to continue, "I mean, I could've dated after the whole year in prison thing, but...well, year in prison. Pretty sure that wouldn't look very good on a dating profile."
"You could also put Superhero. That'd get you a lot of admirers..." he mumbled.
"Pretty sure I'd just get weirdos who wanted to date someone with superpowers and never want me to take the suit off." She snorted and adjusted her position to something more comfortable, "Did I tell you about that high school kid who wanted me to be his date for Spring Formal? And I mean he wanted me to go as Spider-Woman cause 'the site says we do anything'. Seriously."
"You didn't accept, right?" The thought of someone asking Gwen out almost made him frown. Almost. He managed to rein it in.
"Nope." She snorted, "I'm pretty sure there's an 'I refuse to be armcandy' clause in the contracts Betty printed up. We can still do it, but it's not part of our contract. You should know considering you were making kissy faces at Ms. Patsy Walker."
"That was-"
"I'm just joshin' ya, Pete." She rolled her eyes and picked up one of the unopened cans of soda on the table. He just looked at her and tried to ignore the dryness in his tongue. Just tell her now, he screamed internally, tell her now before it gets worse. He balled his hands into tight fists, took a deep breath and asked.
"You heard anything from Shadowcat?"
Her lax smile faded and she looked down at the can of soda, "Nope, still nothing." She sighed, "Been trying to call Mr. Osborn too, but no dice. It's...It's bugging the hell out of me, Pete. I mean I get why Shadowcat wants to cut me out, but why Mr. Osborn? I saved Harry's life! Twice! You'd think a guy would get that I didn't want to just put him in a jail cell or something..."
"Yeah..." Peter took a deep breath. Now or never, "So, um...what would you say if, hypothetically, I could just maybe get some information on the impostor?"
"I'd say you're being too nervous for hypotheticals and tell you to spit it out." Peter winced. Why did everyone always read him like an open book? "...What's wrong?"
"I...may or may not have saved your arch-enemy's life?" She blinked and said nothing, "Matt Murderdock, I mean. I...saved his life."
He told her everything. Going on patrol after waking up, saving Murderdock's life from those ninjas, the talk they had at that billboard, and the deal. Gwen didn't say anything and just let him ramble. Peter just looked down at his wrung hands and refused to look up. He didn't look up - he felt too guilty.
To her credit, Gwen didn't absolutely freak out at that. The blonde separated from him (he didn't say anything about how cold it suddenly was without her next to him) and when he finally face her she gave him a flat look, lips pursed and a single brow raised. They stayed in the absolute quiet for at least a minute before she stood and went for the kitchen without a single word uttered between them.
Peter didn't chase after her. He just looked down at the ground again guiltily and refused to move for several minutes. Of course she'd be angry. Why wouldn't she? That guy made her life absolute hell and he was the reason her dad was in the hospital for so long. Of course she'd hate him for saving him, of course she'd-
"Hey, sorry about that." Gwen suddenly re-entered the room and plopped down next to him. There was a packet of corndogs in her hands, "Just wanted to get some corndogs. I was hungry."
"W-Wait, you're not angry?"
"Uh...why would I be? It's not like you did anything wrong." She offered him a corndog, which he took after a moment of reluctance. She took a generous bite of one and scooted till their shoulders were touching again, "I mean I am kinda cheesed he's still running around, but all you did was save a guy you saw being assaulted by ninjas. Not like you offered to be to be his peter Superhero or something."
"I...guess so?" He spun the stick between his fingers awkwardly. This was not how he expected it to go, "I thought you'd be mad considering the deal-"
"Which you didn't take," she interrupted forcefully. Peter looked at her again and she smiled warmly at him, "Seriously, Pete, you need to lighten up. Murderdock made you a deal and you didn't take it. Simple as that."
"But...if I did take the deal, would you have been angry?"
"You mean if you did sneak with that asshole behind my back 'for my own good'? Absolutely. I would've gone apeshit." The cheery way she said that creeped him out just a bit, "But you didn't, that's the point. You could have acted like an idiot and you didn't, so why would I be angry? Besides-" she sagged slightly on the cushions, "I don't exactly have any room to talk considering I almost lied to you about your world. Hell, I should be apologizing to you for waiting so long when you told me immediately!"
"It's alright! I mean, you just wanted to-"
"It doesn't matter what I wanted. Point is I lied to you and I waited a week before telling you anything. You waited, what, 30 minutes? It's not exactly comparable." She laughed softly. There was a hint of bitterness in the gesture, "But seriously, stop worrying. Murderdock made you a deal and you didn't take it. You did better than I did." Her lips curled in a frown. He hated seeing her like that, "At least you didn't-"
He kissed her again. He didn't know what made him suddenly so brave, but in the end they were making out - yes, you read that right, making out - on the couch. Gwen closed her eyes and let him push her down onto her back. She was warm. That was the only thing he could focus on as his hands trailed under the hem or her shirt to rub her warm, warm, warm skin.
Their lips separated with a soft pop and Gwen gasped, "Peter..." Her hands settled on her sides. Peter's cheeks burned and he swallowed nervously at the sight of her red face and strangled breaths. She was always so cool and confident, seeing her like this was-
"Gwen..." He leaned down to kiss her again before she grabbed his shoulder and shook her head. He was almost hurt before she said her next words.
"Pete...my dad's upstairs."
He suddenly felt like he'd been doused in ice cold water. Her dad, the police chief who probably woke up from every little noise, was right upstairs. Peter practically jumped back away from Gwen and almost fell off the couch entirely when his back bumped against the armrest.
The blonde raised a brow as she sat up, "Alright, I didn't think that'd suddenly make you think I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, but whatever." She actually sounded kinda miffed. Peter opened his mouth to defend himself before she suddenly laughed, "I'm kidding! Geez, you really need to learn to take a joke."
"So...you're not mad?"
"Considering we were making out on the couch five seconds ago? You tell me." She stood up and stretched her arms above her head with a short groan, "Ugh, we wasted the corndogs." She looked down at the spilled corndogs and (very regretfully) put them in a plastic bag for disposal, "You wanna go get something to eat? My treat. I did a job a couple of days ago and there's this new burger place that opened up."
"W-Wait." He grabbed her hand and she looked down at him curiously, "Wh-What do we do about Murderdock? He still has my number, and he probably knows how to contact me somehow." He doubted that guy would just wait for Peter to make the first move and call him first.
"Then we'll meet him together." She pulled him up, "Easy as that. Trust me, without his goons or the Hand backing him he's not exactly a threat now. If he tries anything I'll kick his ass and feed him those shades of his. And about Harry...I'll call Cap. I didn't want to cause she might hold it over me, but if I don't get any updates at the end of the week I'll ask for a favor. Better than nothing."
"Okay..." He paused before asking his next question, "Hey, if you found Murderdock when he needed help...what would you have done?"
"I'd...probably have let the ninjas have at him." She licked her lips, "That doesn't sound very heroic of me, does it?"
"It's pretty fair considering what he did to you. I'd probably have done the same thing." He didn't like killing people, but there was a reason Mr. Stark put the instant kill mode there. Sometimes it did just come down to your or them.
He liked to think the best of people, but even people he saved like Mr. Toomes tried to bury him alive in that warehouse; Mr. Toomes couldn't have known he'd pull through. And for what? To take of his family. They didn't look like they were struggling in that fancy house and car of theirs. Mr. Toomes made more than enough to take care of his family and he just got greedy and couldn't stop. For all his justifications about just wanting to care for his family, he was just a criminal in the end.
Murderdock was probably the same if what Gwen said was right. Just a petty person who refused to admit he was anything more than that.
They ended up at the burger place in no time flat. The two of them took a corner table and Gwen dug into her triple burger happily, "Oh my God, this is the best feeling in the world." Gwen moaned, "We gotta come back here next payday with the others."
"Yeah." He took a bit of his comparatively smaller burger and hummed, "So...are we going to tell them? You know, about us?"
She set her burger down and downed half the soda in one go, "I...guess so. I mean I don't see any point in hiding it or anything. It's just...man, MJ's gonna absolutely hold it over my head. Did you know she's been teasing me that we 'so obviously had it bad for each other'?"
"Actually, no." That might've explained the occasional smirks she gave when he and Gwen were talking, though.
"Oh, and of course Glory's gonna go all band mom and start grilling us about if we're sure this is what we want or if we even thought about the whole alternate dimension thing and bla bla bla."
"Yeah..." Sometimes, for just a bit, he forgot about Thanos and his world. And then it all came crashing crashing back down, "Fighting Thanos is gonna be hard."
"I'll be there with you, so no worries there." He looked at her in surprise and she raised a brow, "What, did you think I'd let you fight that big purple bastard on your own? Not a chance. Me and the rest of the Web Warriors have your back. No Spider left behind."
"I...thanks." He didn't cry, he just...maybe sniffled a bit. Gwen and the others had done so much for him: giving him a place to stay, trying to help him find his way back home, and now they were willing to fight a guy who killed off half the universe, "I'm...I'm really happy I ended up here. I promise I'll pay you and the others back for all the help you gave me."
"You don't have to." Gwen leaned forward and took his left hand in her right. She smiled, "You helped me out too, you know. I was...in a really bad place for a while there. If you weren't here I might've started shutting out Betty and the others, so I don't want you to feel like you owe me anything, alright? We're partners, we've got each other's backs..."
They didn't kiss again, but the warmth from her hand was enough for him. Peter smiled back just as bright and didn't notice the clicks of the camera across the street and the paparazzi speeding away on a bike.
As mentioned above, this took some major re-writing in dealing with Matt. In the original chapter Peter did accept the deal on the basis that it would be fine so long as Gwen didn't find out and it was for her sake. This would've led to Gwen inevitably finding out in the next chapters and their relationship stalling cause Peter went behind her back in a major way.
And then I realized , no, MCU absolutely would not do this and compromise Gwen's trust since he's not like Noir. So I had to delete all of that and start over from scratch where Peter is much more torn and ultimately decides he likes (loves?) Gwen and he's not gonna play grabass with her arch-enemy behind her back. It lacks the dramatic 'how could you?!' kick, but it does feel far more sensible and in-character. Apologies for people wanting more drama.
As mentioned above, the next chapter will hopefully be much lighter and deal with the fallout of Peter and Gwen getting caught making kissy faces by the paparrazi. Granted MCU's secret identity is already paper thin as it is, but now they have confirmation. Oh, and of course MCU getting a lot of hate from Gwen's not-so-secret admirers given how popular she is with certain parts of the NYC population.
...Oh, and random Looking Glass Noir cameo cause I'm feeling vain. It'll be the last one, I promise. I just added him in cause I thought it was unfair that Two Spiders Gwen got to talk with Looking Glass Gwen while MCU had to deal with grouchy canon Noir.
Questions:
1. For a date chapter between Gwen and MCU, what would you guys want? I'm torn between them doing something normal couples would do like a walk in the park, movies or going to the beach vs them doing something in-costume as Spider-Man and Spider-Woman. What do you guys think, normal or superhero?
- Location
- England
If Tony doesn't hand it over when asked nicely, then he's a dick.
...Why? He bought it, Gwen can't just demand it back given that she never copyrighted it in the first place.
- Location
- England
I said "ask nicely" not "demand". And to answer your question, as a fellow hero and a billionaire not giving her back the rights to her own hero-name and imagery is a dick move. Completely legal, but dickish.
Last edited:
Tony Stark isn't a hero in Earth-65; he's an arms dealer who owns a PMC, so no heroics. It's doubtful he'd care overtly much if Gwen asked nicely.
- Location
- England
Ack. Too many continuities.
That said, the law side of things sounds pretty screwy too. If 'Spider-woman' (Gwen) was known US wide, as opposed to locally, then under current US law in our reality Stark would not be able to trade mark it later.
[EDIT] Coming to think of it, if he's a billionaire, womanizer, PMC owner and weapons manufacturer then he's nailed the 'dick' label already.
Last edited: