Gwen and Miles swung around the city for about an hour having a contest of who could take down the most crooks. The two were currently fighting off a group mugging that consisted of four burly guys who had cornered a young girl in an alleyway.
Miles fought two while Gwen fought the others. She landed a punch to the first guys face, causing him to stumble back, while grasping his jaw. In that same swift motion she dropped to the ground and spun around with her leg extended, knocking him off his feet and sending him crashing to the ground with a thud. She webbed him to the floor cast a quick glance at Miles.
Only one of his opponents was still standing. She watched as he crouched down and pulled his right fist back. Blue sparks started to erupt from his hand. He then leapt forward and landed a blow to the crooks gut, sending him flying backward into a a rusted, green dumpster. The guys body went limp as he slipped out of consciousness. Miles bumped his fist in the air as he triumphantly whispered a "yes!" to himself.
Suddenly, Gwen felt her spider-sense drone in her head. She sprung into the air using her powers to stick to the wall above her attacker, dodging what would have been a painful hit. The man had thrown a cement block at the place she had just been and she had moved out of the way just in time.
She watched as Miles charged forward landing a kick to the guy's abdomen. Gwen hopped down to attempt to help him, but Miles had already webbed him up.
He turned to her and Gwen could almost see the huge smirk on his face through his mask. "Looks like Spider-man wins!" he called.
"Nuh-uh, I took down way more guys at that last robbery," Gwen countered.
"No way! I took down plenty of guys!"
She crossed her arms over her chest, "Whatever you say, Mi-"
"Um, excuse me?" the voice caught them both off guard. The girl was still there curled up in the corner watching them cautiously. She slowly brought herself to her feet and Gwen took a moment to study the girl in front of her. She had fair skin and deep hazel eyes. her long, dark brown hair- now a frizzy mess from struggling against the muggers- that fell to about mid back.
She saw that Miles did the same and watched as he froze for a moment and the eyes of his mask widened in surprise. Gwen brushed it off. She'd ask him about it later. This girl was probably scared out of her mind.
"Hey everything's all right now," The heroine consoled, "We're not gonna hurt you."
The girls eyes enlarged. "Wait, I know you. Yeah, you're one of the Spider-people! I saw you on the news a couple years ago! The one with the white suit!" she exclaimed, "You're amazing!"
Gwen blinked once, then again. That was not the response she was expecting. She never got compliments in her universe. Anytime she saved somebody or took down a villain, the bystanders assumed they were next. They saw her as a monster, a freak of nature. Miles had no idea how lucky he was.
She smiled a bit under her mask, "Thank you."
Gwen felt a hand being placed on her shoulder she looked up to meet Miles's masked eyes- yes up.
"When did he grow taller than me?"
"Come on. We should go," he spoke, forcing his voice two octaves deeper. Gwen rose an eyebrow and the girl behind her seemed to hold a just as confused expression. He sounded like twelve year old trying to impersonate Batman.
Miles shot a web and swung off. Gwen turned back and gave the girl a small wave, which was over enthusiastically returned. "I'm Liz, by the way!"
"Spider-woman," the white-suited spider replied before swinging away to catch up with, Miles.
After a long debate over who had taken down more crooks, the two spider-teens ended up calling it a draw and deciding to change out of the suits and go get pizza at Miles's favorite restaurant, Joe's Pizza.
They sat down across from each other at a table and Miles ordered a large cheese pie for them to share. Gwen had told him that she'd only eat three slices at most, but he insisted he'd eat the rest.
"So what was up with that fake deep voice?" Gwen asked, letting out a light chuckle, "Please don't tell me you do that every time you save a girl."
Miles's face flushed red, "N-no, it's just she goes to my school. I didn't want her to recognize me."
Gwen smirked as she opened her mouth to tease him, but was interrupted by a low, buzzing sound. Both teenagers hastily looked down at their respective watches which had begun to simultaneously vibrate as "Miguel 928" appeared on the tiny screen. They looked at each other and gave a nod, silently agreeing that they had to leave.
They each left the money for their own meals on the table and sped out the front door, as Miles whined about not getting to eat his pizza. They turned into an alley and Gwen gave him another nod before pressing a small button on her gizmo, causing a hologram of Miguel to appear above the screen.
"Hey, Gwen I- Oh... Am I interrupting something?" he asked, suspicion lining his voice.
"N-no we were j-just... hanging out," Miles stuttered, causing Gwen to facepalm and Miguel to raise an eyebrow, but luckily he didn't push further like Peter definitely would have.
"Okay... well, suit up and get over to the Oscorp in Miles's dimension ASAP. Octavius has taken over the entire premises and is keeping scientists hostage. I'll alert the rest of the team," he ordered. Both young heroes nodded as the hologram disappeared.
"We'll let's get going, Spider-Boy," Gwen said with a smirk.
Miles groaned, "It's Spider-Man."
"Whatever you say."
Gwen and Miles met the others on a rooftop a little ways away from Oscorp. They were all dressed in their spider-suits, Peter, Miguel, and of course, Peni, being the only ones not wearing their masks. Once they landed on the rooftop Miles immediately pulled his mask from his face and Gwen followed suit.
The two exchanged confused glances at Peter and Peni's mischievous expressions.
"So Miles, I heard you and Gwen were already together when Miguel called," Peter said as he wiggled his eyebrows at them. Miles rolled his eyes and Gwen sent Peter an icy glare, which only caused him to chuckle.
"Of course that would be the first thing he'd say." Gwen thought
"So, why were you here, Gwen?" Peni asked with a grin, which just made me turn my glare over to her.
She then sighed before speaking, "We just stopped a few crimes then went and got some pizza."
"Soooo, like a date?" Peni teased as she playfully quirked an eyebrow. She tried to subtly turn away to hide her pinking cheeks and could see Miles stiffen out of the corner of her eye, making Peter laugh.
"I am so gonna kill her."
"Can we get back to our mission?" Noir asked, as leaned up against the wall, twirling his pistols in his hands out of boredom.
"Yes, we still have hostages that need to be saved," Miguel exasperated, annoyance clear in his features.
"Yeah, let's go," Miles and I said simultaneously, which resulted in an immature, "Aww!" from Ham.
"Children," Noir sighed as he place his gloved hands into his trench coat pockets.
"Okay everyone, I've got a plan, but you'll need to trust me on this," Miguel declared and everybody nodded.
"Call the play, Coach," Miles urged.
"Well as you all know, this is a hostage situation," Miguel began with a serious expression plastered on his face, "So it'd be better to not be seen. I think that only Miles and I should go in."
"Yeah, I'm not loving that idea," Peter stated as he crossed his arms over his chest, his teasing demeanor suddenly gone.
"I know Miles has his invisibility, but why should you go in?" Ham asked crossing his arms, mimicking Peter.
Miguel lifted his left foot slightly into the air. "Nanotech boots, embedded with airloy," he dropped his foot back onto the ground, "Completely soundproof."
"Still, I'm with Peter. If something were to happen to one of you we'd have no idea," I agreed, taking a small step forward.
"Not necessarily, Peni chimed in, making us all cast her confused looks. She walked over to her Sp//dr mech and typed something into a small keyboard on it's back. A few moments later a small drone about the size of a baseball extracted itself from the robot.
"This is the Sp//dr Drone mark one," she proclaimed with a proud smile.
"What's that doohickey?" Noir asked as he pointed at the drone with one of his pistols.
"It's a drone I made. We can send it with Miles and Miguel and then we'll be able to see everything that they can," Peni said as she extracted a small tablet-like device from her pocket. She pressed a few buttons and the screen came to life, projecting the image of the group standing there.
"Impressive," Peter complimented as he looked at himself screen in awe. Gwen could see Ham hopping up and down and flailing his arms about while looking at the screen, which just made her want to roll her eyes.
"All right then, let's go," Miguel said as he leapt off the building. Miles gave Gwen a warm smile, before swiftly pulling his mask down and following Miguel, the drone tailing close behind them.
Gwen knew that Miles had his powers and could turn invisible if there were ever a problem, but a part of her couldn't help but worry. What if this were a trap? What if there were more guards then they expected? So many things could go wrong.
She shook her head, dismissing the thoughts.
She had to trust them.
"Hey guys get over here. They're in the building," Peter called and Gwen looked to see that he was now holding the tablet.
The five heroes huddled together, all trying to get a good look at the screen. The tablet displayed Miles and Miguel cautiously crawling on all fours through the air vent of the large building, just like Miles and Peter had done two years prior at Alchamex.
"Miguel how much further 'till the exit?" Miles whispered, to Miguel ahead of him. Miguel came to a halt, which forced Miles to do so as well. Miguel lifted up his watch, causing a small holographic map of the building to be displayed from it.
"It's just ahead of us," he answered in a whisper. They continued down the tunnel for a bit longer until Miguel abruptly stopped.
"Uh, Miguel?" Miles asked expectantly.
"We're here," he responded in a hushed voice, "There's a lab just below us, but there are three guards inside."
"I'll take care of 'em," Miles replied surely. In an instant Miles dropped out of the hatch, turning invisible before he hit the ground. The spiders all watched on in anticipation.
Gwen saw Peter smile out of the corner of her eye as he whispered, "Let's see what you got, kid."