(Y/N) Graythorne sat at the edge of his bed, a cigarette in his hand, as he loosed himself in the emptiness of the New York Skyline.
Two bodies were fast asleep behind him, both exhausted from the night's proclivities.
In truth, (Y/N) had everything.
Everything in the palm of his hand.
Yet...
Why did he feel so...
It was as if he had a great big emptiness in his heart.
Well, there was only one way to fill it, a momentary reprieve if nothing else.
And that was More... More everything. All he wanted was more.
He demanded more.
"(Y/N)... come back..." He heard the voice of Maria Hill behind him, as a grin found it's way back to his face. He moved to join the two ladies waiting for him. An ever present grin present on his face.
____
I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU. IT'S LIKE THE MORE YEARS THAT GO BY, THE MORE COMPLICATED YOU BECOME.
"Congratulations, you are starting to get what being human means..." (Y/N) said, a hint of both exasperation and humor in his tone.
YEAH WELL, MOST HUMANS DON'T SWING AROUND SAVING PEOPLE. SO YOU'RE NOT A NORMAL HUMAN BY ANY STRETCH OF THE WORD.
"Am I not though?" (Y/N) asked, making the symbiote fall silent.
I DON'T KNOW...
"Exactly." (Y/N) said, surveying the city as he got ready to swing his troubles away. He reckoned if he just went on patrol... helped people, that he would eventually find his way back home.
Their way back home now...
ARGH, SPEAKING OF THAT CAN OF WORMS. I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU'RE THE ONE WHO'S ALL APOLOGETIC. LIKE, JUST DUMP THAT BITCH.
(Y/N) stayed silent for a few seconds... or minutes... he didn't know.
"It's... very easy to be harsh, Noise." (Y/N) said, giving the symbiote some pause.
...HARSH? WHAT?
"I... don't know, it's like..." (Y/N) trailed off, shaking his head. "If I can be a rock in this ever flowing world... I think that would make some difference."
WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? DID YOU READ SOME SUN TZU BEFORE THIS?
"I'm just pondering. What would I accomplish by lashing out, getting angry? It would just make the situation worse." (Y/N) shook his head yet again, swinging away this time as he heard sirens.
PONDER AWAY SOME PLACE QUIETER, LIKE IN GWEN'S BOSOMS...
"..." (Y/N) didn't grace him with a reply.
OH BUT SHE'S TOO BUSY DIMENSION HOPPING FOR THAT HAHAHHAHA!
"Cheeky little..." (Y/N) whispered under his breath.
____
Gwen had closed the shop for the night, as she shared a hot coffee with her younger counterpart.
"So... how do you swing... with those?" The younger Gwen, now wearing a comfortable hoodie and leggings, sat facing opposite Gwen.
"With great difficulty." Gwen chuckled and remembered her conversation with Natasha way back when... they really needed to get back to their universe.
"Huh... Guess I'm lucky eh?" Gwanda's words betrayed her sadness.
"Don't worry kid, guys... or girls, I don't know what you like, would be all over that pretty face of yours." Gwen kindly said, to which Gwanda's eyes widened.
"You really think so?" Gwanda said, well, it wasn't like she was not confident in herself, but hearing this from what's essentially a better version of yourself, really drove the point home.
"Of course. I would know, you are me!" Gwen said, a smile on her face. "You can be my younger sister!"
"I-I would like that." Gwanda blushed, she always wanted a sister.
"What's the deal with you and the mass murderer?" Gwanda let out and immediately regretted it, as the smile on Gwen's face immediately dropped, a dangerous green glint in her eyes.
"Don't call him that." Gwen stated, as Gwanda raised her arms in defeat.
"Alright Alright..." Gwanda said, as Gwen calmed down.
"We're... in love...." Gwen said, a blush coming onto her face. "Well, it's complicated right now. But yes, we are in love."
"How could you even date him after what happene-" Gwanda stopped herself when Gwen narrowed her eyes.
"He's not your (Y/N)." Gwen stated as Gwanda paused in thought. "What did your one even do? I'm curious now."
Gwanda sat back and relaxed, as she remembered her life before the portal.
"I... never really had any friends, except for Pete... and (Y/N). With Pete, it was more of a brotherly love but I always wanted (Y/N)." Gwanda started as Gwen listened intently. "He was a jerk... I don't why it attracted me to him, but he was one."
"That's awful." Gwen said, thankful for the fact that she drew the best of the lot.
"He was the rich asshole in our school. The jock, the bully. All the stereotypes rolled into one." Gwanda said, smiling. "Now that I say it out loud, I'm starting to wonder why he showed me and Pete so much kindness."
Gwen nodded along.
"He would take me out partying, showed me off to his rich friends, bought me expensive dresses and makeup, but he never treated me like a trophy... It was genuine." Gwanda said, her expression increasingly bitter. "It all changed during the prom night."
Gwen took a seat beside her. "Are you all right?"
"I-I can't continue... please. Let's drop this." Gwanda felt her tears starting to bubble around her eyes.
"Shh... It's all right, we can talk later." Gwen rubbed her younger self's shoulder as the teenager leaned into her.
"It's good to have someone to talk to." Gwanda said, as Gwen smiled, humming in reply.
____
Peter B. Parker, ate his Pizza slice in silence, perhaps it was to calm his nerves or perhaps it was because it could glitch out of existence any second now.
Anyway, he had just hopped multiverses.
Yeah he knows, whoopie, big deal. He had also gone through a messy divorce, yet no one gave a shit about that.
"Jesus... Where am I?" Peter wandered around the rooftop he had landed on.
Crash landed on.
"Still hurts..." He cried out, clutching has arse in pain. His pot belly didn't do much favor to the costume he wore. Looking like the drunk uncle at a party rather than the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
"Rightio. Peter, let's see the situation." He wandered around the roof, trying to get a sense of direction, before his eyes landed up on the bright lights of Times Square.
He swung over there to get a better idea of this place. Nothing faster than a few consumeristic videos to jog up a place's vibe.
Only, it was covered by ads of the Chinese rip-offs of the normal products.
Koca-Soda.
WWWF.
Why is Seth Rogan a jockey?
His eyes wandered way off to one side of the bright displays, the mask he worse seemed to stretch across his when his eyes widened.
He was dead.
Peter Parker was dead... and blonde... and perfect.
Peter stood gob smacked, slowly taking his mask off. "That's me... That immaculate facial structure is a dead giveaway." Peter caught himself as he thought about what he said. "That's offensive, isn't it?"
It is...
He needed to see it with his own eyes to even believe what had happened.
____
A few hours earlier,
Miles ran and ran, his heart heaving in his chest. It felt like it would explode any second now. This was a natural reaction when one has just seen Spider-Man get killed.
He was right there, he talked to Miles, and then... he was dead...
Miles couldn't get the image from his mind, the man died without fear in his eyes, but... he still died.
Why did that have to happen to him... and to think it was all his goddamned fault!
That collider thing went off and then...
He had the pen-drive in his hand as he hid, trying to contain his breath from the psycho purple man behind him.
He knew if he got caught, he would join Spider-Man in death.
The night made hiding easier, but he doubted the armored man didn't have something for occasions like this, he needed to run further, but he just couldn't without alerting that guy.
He heard the metallic footsteps in the alleyway, the guy was blocking the entrance now, no way for him to escape through there now.
The footsteps started to get closer and closer, the thumps of metal against concrete menacing Miles, his heartbeat getting even quicker.
His house was pretty close from here, if he could only-
Before Miles could think further, the Metallic footstep was right next to him, he craned his neck to see if he was caught yet, and... judging by the two purple eyes staring at him...
Miles closed his eyes as he heard the crank of metal against metal. A fist coming down on him, intending to kill.
But the hit never came.
Miles only heard a crashing sound, prompting him to open his eyes.
His eyes widened as he saw something that he thought was impossible.
Spider-Man, a darker suited version of him, stood above the Armored man, His red eyes stared back at him for only a second.
Their minds seemed to tingle at the same frequency for but a second, before the connection dimmed.
"Did somebody order a shittier Iron-Man?" The Spider-Man joked, before turning towards him, "What're you waiting for? Run!"
Miles didn't wait this time, choosing to run before he was caught in the middle of the battle. He didn't know what was happening, his mind all too scrambled and confused right now to process much of anything.
"Now you. Do you get off of harassing children?" (Y/N) asked the purple man, who retaliated from his prone position, going for Spider-Man's throat.
He failed as (Y/N) dodged out of the way, "This is not your business, not your world." The heavily distorted voice of the guy made (Y/N) shake his head.
"So original, look I can do it too, hehe." The man didn't look surprised, instead choosing to attack Spider-Man.
(Y/N) dodged multiple attacks aimed at his throat, his heel, any where that might be considered a weak spot, but the purple man just couldn't manage a hit.
The purple man kicked off of (Y/N)'s chest and back away from him, he didn't waste another second as he supercharged his fist.
(Y/N) shook his head as he got into a stance, one hand on the floor, his body crouched, like a Spider ready to pounce on it's prey.
The man seemed to almost fly towards (Y/N), the speed of him moving blinding to the normal person. But not to (Y/N), he too made a bit of run towards the danger.
To the average joe, this all happened within a second, but to these two trained men, they had been sizing each other up for minutes.
The purple man was quick, but (Y/N) was far quicker. He used the fist as stepping stone, in turn changing the trajectory of the explosive attack. Then (Y/N) connected his webs to the back of the man, using his airborne position to pull the man up towards him and then promptly slam him down into the ground.
With a giant thud, the man landed on his back, cracking the pavement below him, The purple man didn't wait for the hit to even register, as he immediately let out a smoke bomb, covering the alley in a haze.
(Y/N) could see a bike materializing through the outlines of the smoke, and it didn't take long for the man to escape through the smoke, leaving behind a confused (Y/N). He should probably go after the man but his thoughts were clouded by Miles.
'What is that kid doing? And why the hell did I feel a Spider-Sense from him?' (Y/N) talked to Noise.
HM? WHAT? I WAS BUSY RE-READING THROUGH THE ENTROPY EFFECT AGAIN.
'I knew letting you memorize books was gonna be a bad decision.' (Y/N) groaned out, shaking his head and starting to swing towards the Deli store, he needed to inform Gwen... or the Gwens now.
IT KEEPS ME OCCUPIED AT LEAST, I WOULD'VE GONE CRAZY WATCHING YOUR BORING ASS 24/7.
'Bite me.'
AGAIN, SOMETHING I ACTUALLY WILL DO IF YOU KEEP REPEATING IT.
____
When (Y/N) returned to the Deli store, it was closed, he did have a spare key so that wasn't a problem. They were very lucky in finding Mr. Dallas, a man who judged people on their kindness... or whatever and not credentials, because they literally didn't have any.
They had been searching for an alibi for a day or two while also searching for Spider-Man, because they needed a cover for their civilian identities, they didn't know how long they would be in this universe, could be days or could even be years.
But now they had found another Gwen here, (Y/N) could probably guess that she was also not from this universe. They only seemed to have one Spider-Man here.
This universe's Spider-Man was also vastly different from (Y/N)... by the looks of it, he was popular as hell. (Y/N) had even found a Spider-Man themed restaurant, it was weird yet smart.
As (Y/N) entered the closed shop, he found the backroom's light on. "Gwen? I'm here." He was still in his suit.
"I'm back here." He heard Gwen shout from their current abode.
(Y/N) removed his mask as he entered through the backroom door, Gwen was already on the couch, in a pajama set she had bought from the money they got Mr. Dallas. "Hey Gwen."
"You look exhausted." Gwen pointed out, before getting up from the couch. "Here, you take the couch."
(Y/N) shook his head, "I took it yesterday... We had an agreement."
"Who cares about that? You're tired (Y/N), and you will have the couch, no arguments... Please." Gwen said, their greetings before she went away usually involved a kiss and sweet nothings... Was the price for power too big?
(Y/N) looked at her for a few moments, reading her face, the expression on his face indiscernible.
He then sighed and moved to remove his suit.
Moving towards the couch after he was left in his undies, him facing the back of the thing.
Gwen decided to sleep the way she did last night, in a web hammock.
Once Gwen had finished making her bed for the day, she closed the lights with her webs, removed her web shooter and climbed into the hammock.
"Gwen..." (Y/N)'s voice reached Gwen who turned to see him still facing away from her. "I saw Miles again today."
"That kid?" Gwen remembered the kid that tried to flirt with her.
(Y/N) made an affirmative noise, "We hav- had a Miles in our universe."
Gwen immediately noticed the change in tense from her lover, she dropped from the bedding and onto the floor, slowly approaching (Y/N).
"I watched him die, Gwen." He turned to face her, sitting up in the process, not surprised that she was standing right in front of him now. His face was stoic, but she could feel the pain behind them.
Gwen didn't say anything, her hands moving on their own as she crouched in front of him, he noticed her digits moving towards his shoulders but he didn't stop her.
"I was powerless to do anything... My father... He just..." Gwen noticed his eyes starting to tighten in anger. "I wanted to kill him, Gwen, Really I did."
Gwen comforted him, her hands massaging his shoulder, "You're not a killer (Y/N), I know that." The woman had never seen so much hatred in his eyes.
(Y/N) and Gwen stared at each other, the silence encompassing them bordering between awkward and comforting. It didn't take long for (Y/N) to break eye contact, "...Goodnight Gwen."
(Y/N) turned away from Gwen as she too went back to her bed, and for the first time since they met again, she could feel what he had gone through without her there... and it was all her fault.
'I have to make this right.' She thought to herself as she felt sleep overtake her senses.
____
NEXT TIME ON SPOODER-MAN
THE SPIDERS FINALLY MEET.