CH03 : pressure
ִ ࣪𖤐
Nico looked down and at his phone seeing the news about Peter Parker, his heart sunk and he shut his eyes while clenching his fist. tears hit the screen of the phone, he wish he could've done more to save him. how could he not realize he was dying?
he ran a hand through his hair and there was dark bags under his eyes cause he didn't get as much sleep last night.
I was walking on the wall and made my way onto the roof of the apartment building before making my way down to Nico who was currently staring at his phone.
I stayed upside down and rocked back and forth as I did, I then hung upside down in front of Nico who was still staring at his phone.
I could see the dark bags under his eyes, he looked completely drained and rubbed a hand over his face. he shut his phone off and his eyes locked with mines.
"Hey." he said and graced a smile on his lips while keeping his eyes on me, I just stared at him blankly while looking off to the side, "Miles told us to meet up with him. you coming?" I asked.
"Yeah." Nico answered and the wind blew in his face, he zipped his jacket up and grabbed his backpack, I got down from hanging upside down and landed on my feet.
Nico followed behind me as we were going to meet miles.
————
It's been a couple of weeks since spider-man died. me, nico and miles haven't talked since after that...it just felt like a huge silence between us now. we were still friends but we weren't hanging out as much as we used to, I was still trying to figure out my abilities.
Nico looks like he changed too, his eyes didn't have those dark bags under them anymore. he's been quiet for awhile along with miles, I've been quiet too.
We witnessed a man die for goodness sakes. it would take awhile to get that type of memory out of your mind cause it would be with you forever.
I was on the roof looking down at the streets of Brooklyn, I was going to do jump off the roof and see if my webs were stronger like I thought.
I took a few steps back and prepared myself as I started dashing towards the edge of the roof, my shoes were laced this time and unfortunately...
I tripped. I descended down towards the ground and I screamed as I did, I heard something crack and that must've been my leg.
Wincing in pain my back hit the ground and I yelped, squeezing my eyes shut. I would have to get used to this pain if I wanted to learn how to use these abilities.
I looked at my hand to see blood falling from my knuckles, I must've scraped them when I fell. I stared up at the sky and sighed heavily.
Maybe I wasn't fit to do this.
————
I made my way inside the cemetery and shut the cemetery fence behind me, as I walked the snow crunched beneath my feet every time I walked. how long has it been since we all talked?
I didn't even notice the presence of the two other people, I stared down at the grave but my spidey senses went off which alerted me.
I locked eyes with the two unknown presences who were behind me and I turned to them, "Who-" I stopped when I saw it was miles and nico.
Nico had on a black turtleneck with a dark green jacket, he had on some red converse with black jeans. he seemed surprised that I was here and I was surprised too but just shrugged, Miles noticed this and sighed.
"I'm sorry Mr.Parker." Miles said with a frown, I stood next to him and stared at the tombstone, "the thing you gave me, that key I think I really messed it up. I wanna do what you asked. I really do. but I'm sorry. I'm not sure I'm the guy. I can't do this without you."
"Hey kids." I quickly tried covering my face with my hands, the guy reached out to all three of us and the moment he touched miles a shock ran through him throwing him backwards.
Me and Nico got caught in Miles web and we flew forward along with him making us fall face first into the snow.
"What did I do to him?!" Miles whispered, I stood up slowly and Nico looked over my shoulder to get a better look at the man.
Then a light flashed on us making us turn around quickly, "What you guys doin' over there?" a policeman asks while looking at us, "Freeze! P.D.N.Y."
That's when we started running only to get yanked backwards cause of miles webs that were on the man.
I grabbed the man by the legs while Nico and Miles grabbed the man by the arms, "Hey, kids. drop the body." the policeman continued.
I ran towards him and sent a kick to his face causing him to fall to the ground, maybe that'll make him quiet for a bit.
I felt myself get dragged by the next web making me surprised and I shouted, "MILES ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?"
"SORRY. I'LL PAY YOU BACK BUYING YOUR FOOD NEXT TIME."
"MY GOD MILES!"
"YOU TOO NICO!"
—————
We stood in the center of the room, I stood next to miles while nico had his arms crossed while leaning against the wall. we looked at the man closely.
"You're all like me." he said with wide eyes and we just stared at him, Miles still had that ridiculous mask on.
huffing with a quick look, "We got some questions." I said while glaring at the man, miles took his mask off.
"Why do you look like Peter Parker?" Miles asked, "Because I am Peter Parker." The man answered.
"Then why aren't you dead? and why is your hair different?" Nico asked as he removed himself from the wall, still staring down the ma- well, Peter.
"Why are you older? and why is your body.." Nico looked closer, "a different shape?"
"Pretty sure you just called me fat." Peter said, "No, no! I wasn't trying to put it that way." Nico replied.
"You don't look so hot either, kid." Peter spoke, "Most superhero's don't wear their own merch." he said and gestured towards miles.
"Are you a ghost?" I asked as I poked my head towards him to try and get a better look at him, "No." he replied.
"Are you a zombie?" Miles asked as he walked around him, Me and Nico doing the same, "Stop it." Peter said.
"Are we zombies?" nico said while taking a look at his hands, "You're not even close." Peter grumbled.
"Are you from another dimension? like a parallel universe where things are like the universe but different?" I questioned, "and you're spider-man in that universe? but somehow traveled to this universe, but you don't know how?"
Peter look surprised, "Wow. that was really just a guess?"
Nico shrugged while still circling peter, "We learned about it in physics." he said.
"Quantum theory." Peter said and I just breathed in heavily, "This is amazing! you can teach us like peter said he would." Miles stated.
"Before he died." the other Peter said and we all nodded, "Yes! exactly!" Nico replied.
But then I narrowed my eyes at him and looked at him with a blank stare before turning away, "he's not gonna help us." I mumbled.
"Yeah, right." Peter muttered and I glanced at him, "Look, we made a promise to him." Miles continued.
"Here's lesson number one, kids. don't watch the mouth. watch the hands." Peter said and my eyes widened when I saw him untie the rope.
he threw the bag at all three of us making us collide into each other and hit a door.
We slid to the floor and Nico groaned in pain since he had hurt his wrist the other day, "Peter, seriously..." miles trailed off but before he could finish a web went to his mouth.
"Trust me, kids. this'll all make you better heroes." Peter said and tried leaving but when he tried he glitched and fell down.
Me, nico, and miles hurried out the window and looked down at a glitching Peter on the ground.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked with worry, "No, I'm not." Peter replied while rolling to his side.
"What's going on with your body?" Nico who was beside me asked curiously, "I don't think my atoms are real jazzed about being in the wrong dimension." Peter said, "Look, I'm not looking for a side gig as a spider-man coach. I got a lot going on in my dimension."
"'with great power comes great...'" miles went to say but Peter stopped him, "don't you dare finish that sentence." he says, "don't do it! I'm sick of it."
He glitched again, "Want my advice? go back to being regular kids."
"We don't have a choice! Kingpin's got a supercollider. he's tryin' to kill us." Nico said, "get my point? SO WHAT MAKES YOU THINK-"
"What did you just say?" Peter questioned, "Kingpin's tryin' to kill us." Nico repeated.
"Who cares about that. where's the collider?" Peter asked, "Brooklyn. under frisk tower." Miles answered.
"Goodbye." Peter said and turned his back to us as he started walking away, "Where you going?" I asked.
"When it runs again, I'll jump in and get back to my life." Peter answered in reply.
"okay so here's what we not finna do..." Nico said as he started walking on the wall, "You can't let them run it, man. we're supposed to destroy it so it never runs again or everyone's gonna die. and your ticking me off with your nonchalant attitude!"
Peter sighed, "you're pretty talkative aren't you green hair?"
Nico fumed and turned to me and miles who looked at him, "Did you just hear what he said?! this ripoff spider-man just called me green hair! SIR I HAVE A NAME Y'KNOW?"
"'Or everyone's gonna die'. this is what they always say. but there's always a little bit of time before everybody dies and that's when I do my best work." Peter says.
Me and miles appeared behind Nico as miles held up the key, "aren't you gonna need this?" Miles asked.
"Aw, you have a goober. give it." Peter demanded, "Wait, no. not so fast. he called it and override key." I explained.
"There's always a bypass key, a virus key, a who-cares key. I can never remember. so I always call it a goober. give it." Peter demanded again.
"We need it to destroy the collider." Miles said, "I need it to go home." Peter said in reply.
Nico snatched the key from miles and put it in his mouth, "I'll swallow it. don't play with me." he warned.
"What?" Peter says and looks at Nico who just looked at him, but then he webbed it from his mouth.
"I said—!" before Nico could finish Peter ran off, "The collider created a portal that brought me here. and I have to get..." he trailed off and looked at the broken key.
"Did you break this?" Peter asked miles, "No, it broke." Miles answered.
Me and Nico turned to him and he smiled at us nervously, "When?!" we both asked in a whisper.
I kept my gaze on him and miles adverted his eyes, whenever he does that I know he's lying.
"Yeah, he broke it." I answered while placing a hand on my hip, "I don't remember what happened." Miles protested.
"See, this is why I never had kids." Peter said, "Can't we make another one?" Nico asked.
"We can't do anything. thanks to you three." Peter whispered but I heard him, "I have to re-steal what your guy stole from alchemax and make another one of these."
He threw the key at us which I caught easily in my hands, "if we don't turn off the collider after you leave, everyone in this city, our parents, our uncles and millions of others, will die." Miles explained.
"And you're just gonna go home and leave us here to figure this out for ourselves? Is you for real good with that, spider-man?" Nico questioned while tilting his head.
"Yeah." Peter replied and I stood there with a frown, Nico squatted down and placed a hand on his cheek and sighed loudly, Miles squatted down next to him. I stayed standing up.
"Well, there goes our escape route." I muttered sadly, it stayed quiet as we all just looked depressed.
I didn't see no sign of Peter coming back so there wasn't any point in staying on this wall.
But this was our plan, to make Peter feel guilty. we all winked at each other and I felt a smile grace on my lips before it quickly went away to put on my fake sad smile.
"What are you guys doing?" Peter asked, "Making you feel guilty. is it working?" Miles asked.
"How could it...? No. Look at me." Peter said, "Does it look like it's working?"
We kept staring at him with fake sad looks to make him feel even more guilty, "No. No, it's not..." he pointed his finger at us, that's when he let out a loud cough into his arm purposely.
"No! No! No! do not let them win!" Peter said to himself, Nico and Miles stood up with hopeful looks.
I stared at him with a hopeful look too, hoping he would say yes or something— anything would be good right now.
"Alright, kids. you guys win. come on, we don't have a second to lose." Peter said.
Me, Miles, and Nico stared at each other and high five one another as we cheered quietly to ourselves.
————
"Mmm. I love this burger. so delicious." Peter said, "one of the best burgers I ever had." and we just sat across from him in a booth, Nico had a drink in his hand and miles did also, I was eating some fries while the three of us just stared at him.
"In my universe, this place closed six years ago. I don't know why. I really don't. Mmm." Peter rambled, a man put the check on the table.
"You guys have money, right? I'm not very liquid right now." Peter said and I just shook my head.
"Can we focus?" Nico asked while leaning forward, "Mm-hm. sure." Peter replied.
"The other Peter—" before Nico could finish Peter cut him off.
"You guys gonna eat that?" Peter asked and pointed to our burgers, I just gave him mines and he took miles and Nico's too.
Nico was quick to snatch it back with a glare, "nuh-uh what is you doin'? that's mines." he said and put it back on his tray.
"I'm listening." Peter said as he ate.
I cleared my throat to explain again while sighing, "The other Peter said he was gonna be showing us the ropes."
"Wow." Spider-man said, "you got any spider-man tips you can tell us now?" Miles asked.
"Yeah, I got plenty. disinfect the mask. you're gonna wanna use baby powder in the suit, heavy on the joints. you don't want any chafing, right?" Peter explained.
"Anything else?" I questioned while leaning forward, "Nope, that was everything." Peter replied.
Nico shook his head, "I think you're gonna be a bad teacher." he said.
"Uh-uh-uh? Look up where Alchemax is." Peter said, Miles grabbed his phone and looked it up, "'A private technological campus, in Huston valley new york'. you can teach us to swing on the way there." Miles said.
"Pew pew pew!" All three of us made the sounds with our hands, Peter laughed at us.
————
"I'm not swinging to the Hudson Valley, Miles, Nico, and [Name]." Peter said. we were on the bus and sat next to him, "not after a hearty burger breakfast. keep your legs fresh. you're gonna thank me later."
Nico stared at him with a scrunched nose and Peter stared back, these two had a weird relationship...Nico stuck his tongue out and Peter just forced a smile while rolling his eyes.
———
"Why do we have to wear this?" I questioned with a groan, "Uh- you don't have to wear that. cause I'm definitely not." Nico pointed out.
"PUT IT ON." Peter shouted and we quickly did, I looked so ridiculous wearing this but it fit I guess...
I pointed to miles who was wearing cape, "so in whose right mind would wear a cape?" I said and plucked him on the forehead, "take it off." I demanded and miles winced, "I think it's cool." Miles replied, I snatched the cape off his back and threw it off into the snow.
"Remember, spider-man doesn't wear a cape." I said with a smirk, Nico stood beside us, "This is so ridiculous!" he commented.
"So, how do we retrace peter's footsteps?" I asked, "that's a good question." the other Peter replied.
We all ducked down and we turned towards Peter, "What would I do if I were me?" he placed a hand on his chin and we all did the same, "Got it." he explained to us his plan.
"So, what are we doing?" Miles asked and pointed to all of us, "You guys stay here. you're lookout. very important." Peter replied.
"Look, man. you gotta teach us how to do spider-man stuff or we don't be able to help." Nico said matter of factly.
"Watch and learn, kiddos! I'll quiz ya guys later!" Peter said and swung away on his web.
"Why did we get stuck with the lanky, old, broke hobo spider-man?!" We all said in sync and flopped onto the snow.
Miles hit his arm against the rock cracking it while Nico had flickered some type of spark fly from his hands and into one of the trees making it turn into smoke while I had red veins spread across my arms.
We all looked at each other, "that's new." we said in sync.
"Guys.." I called out and gestured them to come over to the rock, we all looked closer at the car that just pulled up and our eyes widened when we saw kingpin.
"Kingpin." we said and looked at each other, we quickly ducked behind the rock.
Then we looked at each other again and nodded.
————
My loud thoughts kept echoing in my head as me and Nico followed behind miles, we climbed onto the roof of alchemax.
We climbed into the vents and it was cramped, Nico accidentally kicked miles in the head and miles kicked him in the face, "will you two stop?!" I whispered shouted.
"Whoa!" I heard miles say and kingpin turned towards the vent, we quickly looked away.
"Peter! Peter—" miles shouted quietly but suddenly stopped, I stopped as well and Nico tried to see why we stopped and his face turned green in disgust.
"What are you guys doing here?" Peter asked us, "Kingpin's here." I answered, "Just move over."
Miles bumped into me and I fell onto Peter and Nico fell onto miles, "You're steppin' on my foot. go back outside." Peter said.
"No! we can't sit there and let spider-man die without doing anything about it." Miles stated, "We're not doing that again." Nico added.
It was quiet as Peter just stared at us and we looked at him, "What?" we all asked in sync.
"Most people I meet in the workplace try to kill me, so you guys are a nice change of pace." Peter said, Nico gave him a small smile.
"Mr.Frisk! Look at this data. I know you can't really understand it. but these are really good numbers."
We watched and I furrowed my eyebrows, "And I got the password." Peter said.
He started doing a hand mimic as the lady kept talking, Nico held back a laugh, "this is pretty standard spider-man stakes. you get used to it. watch this. he's gonna say 'you've got 24 hours'."
"You've got 24 hours."
I looked at Peter who looked back at me with a simple shrug, "What this means is there could be a rupture in the space-time continuum." after I heard the lady say that I felt a immense wave of pressure.
"Ooh. that's bad. actually, everything she said was bad. I was lying before." Peter said.
Peter opened the vent and climbed out from it and sat in the seat of where the computer was.
Me, Miles, and Nico climbed out, but our hands immediately stuck on the light, "oh crap, not again..." Nico groaned.
"What are you doing, kiddos?" Peter asked, "we can't move." Miles answered.
"Okay, relax your fingers. we don't have time. Just let go. be in the moment." Peter instructed.
"We are in the moment. It's a terrible moment." Nico replied while he began panicking, "They're right there. they're gonna see you guys. guys, you gotta unstick." Peter said, "what do you guys do to relax?"
"Relax. okay, okay. alright." I said and shut my eyes, "Needless to say, I keep her in check," I started singing miles and Nico started singing with me.
"Oh, for crying out loud." Peter groaned, "Callin' it quits now, baby, I'm a wreck. crash at my place hmhmhm.." I hummed and my fingers started to unstick themselves.
"OH CRAP—!" I fell on top of Nico and Miles which made them groan loudly in pain.
"Just the worst." Peter mumbled.
I stood up and clutched my side as I winced, I didn't notice myself camouflaging into the walls.
"AGHN—!" Nico shouted and looked down to see the green lighting sparks on his hands, but when he looked at himself he noticed his hair glowing a bright green as his eyes were too.
"Man what is happening?!" Nico panicked, "Miles, [name], where are you guys?" Peter asked.
"Right here!" I shouted, "Where? I can't see ya." Peter replied.
"We're right in front of you." Miles said and I stood beside him, I looked down at my hands and un-camouflaged.
"Can spider-man/woman camouflage?" I asked, "Can spider-man turn invisible?" Miles asked also.
"CAN SPIDER-MAN GLOW NEON?" Nico asked and we all turned to him seeing him glowing a green neon..? our eyes widened and his hair looked a bit longer too?
"How in the...?" Peter trailed off surprised and poked miles in the eyes before answering his question, "not in my universe." he answered.
"Aah! You just poked me in my eye!" Miles exclaimed, Peter guided me and Nico over next to miles.
"This is incredible. some kind of fight or flight thing." Peter said, we all turned our head when we heard a voice.
"What's that?" someone asked.
Miles went invisible again and I camouflaged, Nico jumped up and green sparks started coming from him again, making him flinch.
"Remember this password. D-G-F-A-M-P-E-S-A-N-D..." it was too fast to process what Peter was saying.
"Whoa, whoa slow down!" I said while my eyes widened, "too much, slow down man!"
"—4-$-3-5-8-7-6-5-3-4-5-3-5." Peter continued, "THERES A DOLLAR SYMBOL?" Nico shouted.
"I need to write it down!" Miles shouted as well, "Download the schematic." Peter said and placed something in my hand.
"How do we do that?" I asked while shaking my head, "While I turn on the charm." Peter said and completely ignored my question.
I ran over to the computer and typed the password in, miles and Nico standing behind me, somehow when miles touched nico he made him invisible too.
I turned the computer over, "what was the rest?" I whisper shouted, I heard him say the number 35.
"Got it!" I said and typed the last number in, "35..35..." I mumbled but when it unlocked I saw a bunch of little apps and files.
My face scrunched in confusion as I did a 360 with my head with a raised eyebrow, trying to understand what this meant.
I hurried and grabbed the computer while miles and Nico helped me along the way, "what are you guys doing?" Peter whispered.
"we're just taking the whole thing." Miles answered, I stopped in my tracks when I heard the lady say something.
"And I, for one, can't wait to watch." The lady said, "What did you say your name was again?" Peter asked.
"Dr.Olivia Octavius." She said.
But where have I heard that name before? It sounds familiar...octavius.
OCTAVIUS.
Yeah, we were gonna have to run.
END OF CHAPTER 3