Chapter Text
"What's the situation, Lyla?" Miguel, the Spider-Man of the year 2099 from Earth-928, asked his AI assistant.
Lyla zipped around the holographic screens of his personal lab, for once in her digital existence looking deadly serious. "You're not gonna like this."
The screens flashed and footage from another Earth appeared. From what Miguel could tell, it seemed to be a basic Earth. There didn't seem to be any defining features that he could recognise at first glance. The live footage showed the Avengers of this Earth fighting a new treat in New York.
At first, Miguel wasn't sure what he was looking at, but then he saw it. Blue strings hung over the street, with civilians being held captive. Red bones protruded from the ground and buildings and even flew through the air. Great black dragon skulls floated around, appearing and disappearing seemingly at random to blast the heroes. All come from one source.
A short black skeleton wearing a large hoodie, with those same strings wrapped around his fingers. He seemed to be throwing a tantrum of some kind.
Miguel growled, subconsciously unsheathing his claws. He knew who that skeleton was and exactly where he came from. He hoped they would never have to deal with them but he had also been secretly itching for a chance like this.
He turned around, the screens disappearing behind him. He typed some commands into a metallic watch wrapped around his wrist and an orange hexagonal portal appeared in front of him. His Spider-Man suit materialized over his clothes and ordered Lyla, "Alert the council and send in a containment team. I want that anomaly in his cell in an hour."
///
Error yelled in frustration when that stupid frisbee hit him again. This was wrong. Everything about this was wrong. He should have destroyed this AU by now, but these humans were stronger than he had ever thought to be possible. He could barely keep up with them.
He stood on his several feet in the air on strings, which hung between the countless skyscrapers that he had found himself in. For some reason, he was weaker in this universe. His clothes were tattered, his arms were heavy and he could feel his joints cracking. These humans had to be cheating. There was no other explanation.
"Damn you, Dirty Hackers!" Error yelled as he reached out. Blue strings shot out of each of his fingers and the Avengers dodged. The strings ended up hitting solid concrete or got tangled with random objects on the street.
Captain America ducked behind an overturned car, hoping to buy enough time to catch his breath. "Status report?" he asked, the message immediately being delivered to each Avenger's ear.
"We're almost done evacuating civilians and the police have finished establishing the perimeter," Clint said as he helped a kid out of a tipped-over car.
"Wish we could say the same, Legalos." Iron Man snarked, blasting out of the way from a beam from those dragon skulls. "This guy's tough. I'm starting to think we might have to throw him through a sky scrapper or two."
"Don't bother, Tony," Wanda said, as she manipulated some rubble to form a wall that protected her from a bone attack, "I've fought my fair share of skeletons. Trust me when I say that we are wearing him down."
"Seriously? I couldn't tell." She-Hulk joked, as she leapt into the air and punched the skeleton, who was standing on some of his strings like a swing, causing more 'Errors' to flash on his body.
"That's good, right." Scott Lang said as he used his giant body to prevent a building from tipping over as Silk webbed it together.
"It's all good, Scott!" she exclaimed when she was done, swinging in front of the Giant-Man and giving him a thumbs up, one that he returned once he let go of the tower. He shrunk down to his regular size, before shrinking again and jumping on a flying ant.
As Silk swung in search of more people to help, she heard a familiar beep from her wrist. She rolled up her sleeve to reveal her personal Goober, which had a call for her. She answered it with no hesitation.
An orange projection of a man wearing a very familiar costume appeared. The identification number on the screen quickly confirmed the identity of this person.
"Hey, Prime. Listen, I'm kinda busy over in my universe so would it be okay if you get another spider handle whatever it is you need help to deal with."
"It's okay, Silk." Peter Parker from Earth-616 said, "I'm calling you to let you know that we are sending in a special task force to capture the anomaly in your universe. I just need you and your Avengers to keep that skeleton in one spot long enough for them to do their thing. Can you do that?"
"He can teleport. How are we supposed to keep him in place?"
"Overwhelm him. Don't give him time to think. Web him to the street. Those strategies usually work for me. Just keep him focused on you guys."
Silk nodded, "Understood, Prime. Over and out." With the call ended, Cindy began to swing back to the main battle.
On her way there, she called the Avengers, "Guys! I just got word to reinforcements are on the way. We just have to keep this guy in one place."
"Why would you receive word that reinforcements are coming and not the rest of us?" Clint questioned as he rode his hoverbike back to the scene of battle."
Cindy smirked as fired a web at the skeleton named Error, "You'll see."
As the heroes of this Earth battled the glitching entity for the preservation of this Earth, another team of heroes that this world has never seen began to appear around the battlefield.
In an office building overlooking the fight, an orange hexagonal portal manifested itself into reality, moving chairs and scattering papers even more than they had been before. And from this portal, stepped out a girl.
The girl was unique as far as Spider-People and their uniforms go. She wore a black suit with a bright red spider that covered her entire torso. A red travelling cloak was seemingly woven into the suit and a red hood hung over her head with a red cape with black web outlines fluttered behind her. The lenses of her mask glowed a bright silver from under her hood instead of the usual white. She also wears a combat skirt, so that's pretty cool.
In her hands was a giant scythe that matched her suit's colour scheme. As she walked through the deserted office to the wind, she dramatically twirled her weapon over her head, and it transformed into an automatic sniper rifle.
She walked to the shattered windows and looked down at the battle. Error was throwing every attack he had in his arsenal, but the Avengers were not letting go. He was covered in bits of webbing, but not enough to restrain him.
Satisfied, the unnamed spider awkwardly kicked away some of the glass shards. Once she was happy, she laid down on her stomach and stuck the barrel of her weapon out the window.
She put her eye to the scope and expertly positioned her weapon to Error's location. She took a breath in, locked in, and breathed out.
She brought her goober to her face and activated it. An orange hologram of a spider person appeared and the girl began filling them in, "Ruby Rose from Remnant-16, in position. I'm locked onto the anomaly."
"You are not required to state your homeworld designation, child." the Spider-Man said, "Not only do we all find it insufferable, but it is also unnecessary. You are the only Ruby Rose in the database."
Ruby rolled her eyes, "Whatever ever you say, Octojerk."
'Octojerk' groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Who told you about that nickname?"
"Peter did."
"...Which Peter?"
"Peter Parker."
"For the love of- Child! Eighty percent of our organization is made up of Peter Parkers! You need to be more specific than that!"
Ruby simply smirked underneath her mask and didn't say anything. She watched with satisfaction as 'Octojerk' became more and more frustrated.
He pointed an accusatory finger at her and yelled, "My point stays the same! You are the only Ruby Rose in our organization!"
"Whatever you say Octojerk."
Back in the streets, Error teleported out of the way of an energy blast from the tin can named Iron Man and responded with a volley of bones from behind. The attack sent the Armoured Avengers into a crater in the street.
As he pulled himself out of the crater, he sarcastically asked, "What was that about us wearing him down?"
Wanda rolled her eyes, as she used her telekinesis to untangle the civilians suspended in the air by the blue strings. "He's clearly tougher than the other skeletons that I have fought, Stark. You can't blame me for that."
"She's got a point, Tony," Silk said as she swung in for another run. She fired as many webs as she could from the tips of her fingers, the substance immidietoy wrapping itself and sticking to the skeleton.
"Why yo-Mmff" Error's mouth was covered in webs as Silk continued her barrage. The other spiders needed this guy in one place. That was something she could give them.
She kicked the skeleton into the air and was ready to follow when- Bang!
Ruby smirked as she watched her very special bullet hit its target. Technically it wasn't a bullet but it was metal and she shot it out of her gun.
The projectile cut through the air at the speed of sound and collided with a still-stunned Error's back. Contact sent a small shockwave that unravelled all the webs on the skeleton's body, but this was only just the beginning.
The moment it made contact, the metal disk activated, with a high-tech-looking spider emblem lighting up on its surface. Metal shot out of it and wrapped around Error, four lengths to be exact. Two over his shoulders and two around his knees. All four pinned his arms to his side. Then with a bright light flashed followed by the skeleton's screams.
Error didn't understand what was happening but the pain that he was experiencing was unlike anything he has ever felt before. It was as if his very code was being attacked by the strange device wrapped around him and restraining him. He crashed into the concrete floor, sending a dust cloud into the air.
The Avengers were stunned.
"What the heck was that?" Scott asked, voicing the question that every Avenger had.
The Avengers slowly surrounded the edge of the crater, not sure what to do.
A small tornado of rose petals dived from above and into the small crater. As the dust cleared, the heroes saw the cloaked girl in red and black standing over the now silent but struggling skeleton. In her hands was a giant scythe taller than her.
She-Hulk asked, "Ok, who is that?"
No one recognized the scythe wielder, except for one.
Silk crawled to the edge of the hole. She smiled beneath her mask and replied, "Reinforcements."
Ruby wanted to jump or dance or do anything to release the excitement going through her system. She had done. She had single handily taken down a destroyer of worlds or whatever this guy's title was. But that wasn't for the here or now. She needed to alert the others.
She activated the goober on her wrist, and a projection of 'Octojerk' returned. In the most professional voice that she could muster, she said, "Phase 1 is complete. The anomaly is secure."
"We're sending in the rest."
Another hexagonal portal opened, this time high in the air, above the sky scrappers and jungle of strings. Another spider fell out of it, but they didn't seem to be panicked about falling from countless feet in the air.
This spider wore early 20th-century Japanese clothes. A red haori with a black web pattern flapped in the wind over a black buttoned uniform. His entire face was covered with a red mask with the same pattern as the haori with white lenses over the eyes. Strangely, he seemed to be wearing modern sneakers.
In his hands was a katana with a white blade. As he descended, the spider muttered to himself, "ヒーローの呼吸、スパイダーフォームエイト：マキシマムスパイダー. <Translated from Japanese with Google Translate: Hero Breathing, Spider Form Eight: Maximum Spider>"
Faster than the human eye could track, the spider began jumping through the jungle of blue strings, spinning webs while effortlessly cutting through the blue strings with his sword.
In less than five seconds, the forest of blue strings was replaced by webs. Objects like cars and lights were suspended safely and the civilians we sitting on web platforms, comfy and easy to reach.
The swordsman spider landed in the crater next to the scythe wielder with a pose. He sheathed his sword and stood straight. Then, in perfect English, he said, "I know, I'm awesome."
Ruby chuckled and lightly, for a spider, punched her ally, "That you are, Slayer."
"You think this over!" Error questioned as he began to slowly pick himself up. His voice was so messed up now that it was practically impossible to understand. Now that the initial shock had worn off, Error was able to endure whatever the device was doing to him, at least a little.
The Avengers and Spiders got into fighting stances, preparing themselves for anything. But before anyone could say anything, a blue beam came out of nowhere and hit Error.
The skeleton stumbled a bit, unsure of what just hit him, then dropped to the floor completely unconscious.
"It appears we overestimated the capabilities of this villain." a weirdly accented voice said.
The heroes turned to face the newcomer. He wore a sleek red and black suit. On his chest, a large spider seemingly merged with the rest of the black on the suit. His mask was similar to the swordsman and scythe wielder, only his lenses were pure black. From his back sprouted four robotic red appendages, the two on top smoking like the barrel of a gun.
He walked past Earth's Mightiest Heroes as if they were beneath him. The additional appendages folded themselves into a container on his back as he dropped down into the small crater.
"We didn't even require the assistance of a full task force. I must say, I'm slightly disappointed. I worked hard on this containment procedure."
Octojerk reached into the utility belt in his suit and pulled a small disk. He tossed towards the unconscious skeleton. From it sprouted a holographic cage that surrounded the skeleton. The Avengers got the feeling that the holograms were solid.
Octojerk turned towards the two spiders in the crater with him and ordered, "You two, take the anomaly back to base and secure him in the cell we constructed for him. I'll stay behind and handle clean up."
"Woah! Not so fast, Octojerk." Silk yelled as she slid into the hole. She stomped towards him while jabbing her finger at him, and while he was much taller than her, she held an aura of strength that matched his.
"You may be a Council member but this is my universe. These guys are more likely to listen to me than a guy who dresses and talks like a villain."
Octojerk growled, "Those days are behind me."
"Keep telling yourself that, Octavious."
Octavious growled. He hated being reminded of his past or being told that he would return to it.
Slayer leaned over to Ruby and whispered, "Should we interfere?"
Ruby shrugged, "I think we should let this play out. Superior's ego is so big that he's practically deaf to whatever we have to say."
Octavius looked like he was about to argue but paused when a beep from his Goober interrupted him. It was a private message which he quickly read through. He seemed to calm down.
He folded his arms and said, "Fine. I am only agreeing to this because I am needed elsewhere. Call the First Contact Division if you need assistance."
The three unknown spiders left the crater through two portals, with the two melee weapon users taking the unconscious and caged skeleton with them.
///
Ink hummed a peaceful tune to himself as he sketched random ideas into his sketchbook as he floated lazily in the endless expanse of the Doodle Sphere. The place that houses all of the AUs, each universe and its timelines housed in the many sheets of paper doting the golden void.
Ink took a moment to peep over his sketchbook. He never got tired of the sight. The embodiment of the hard work of countless Creators. And he had the honour of helping them with some of them.
Ink breathed in, feeling his non-existent lungs with impossible air and sighed. As much as he enjoyed the excitement of his battles with Error, he also took the time to savour moments like these. Because as peaceful and endless as they appear, you can never know when they can end without warning.
"Ink!"
Like right now.
"What's up, Corey?" Ink asked cheerfully as he packed his sketchbook away. When he turned around to look at his friend, he froze.
The face of the omnipresent child was that of fear, anxiety panic and desperation. In all the time that Ink knew the cryptic with a shit-eating personality, he had never seen look so genuinely scared. Sure there were times when they got so scared that their persona shattered, showing to the world the scared kid that they once were.
"What's going on?" he asked, his own anxiety beginning to boil up.
Frisk took a few breaths and began to explain, "Earlier today, Error disappeared from my vision. I didn't notice because I don't really pay attention to him unless he's planning something or watching UnderNovella. I was going to tell you as soon as I realised but then... Come to the Omega Timeline. You'll understand when you see it."
Ink gives them a confused look. In all the years that he knew Core, he had never seen them look so panicked. Or he did and forgot. That is always a possibility. After some thought, Ink shrugged and said, "Alright. See you there."
Grabbing his precious Broomie off his back, Ink painted himself a portal to the Omega Timeline and hopped in.
When he jumped out of the portal in the town centre of the timelines main town, he wasn't surprised to see Core already there, standing by his side. He was surprised that Dream, the Guardian of Positivity was also there.
"Oh hey, Dream." Ink waved to his friend, "Did Core also call you here?"
Dream Sans shook his head, "No. I sensed a sudden spike of negativity in the Omega Timeline, which rarely happens. I came to find out what caused it."
Ink leant on his paintbrush and asked, "Cool. Did you find it?"
Dream pointed in front of him and said, "Them."
Ink turned his head to look where Dream was pointing.
There, not that far away, we're seven figures, most likely humans, dressed in outfits that are both similar and unique to each other. Ink could find only find two constants between all of them. The weirdly shaped eyes, and the spider on their chest.
The shortest of the humans, one dressed in all black with red outlines, leaned towards the human standing at the centre of them all and whispered not so quietly, "That is one short skeleton."
The centre human, whose red and blue outfit seemed to be the most basic out of all of them, nodded and replied, "And that giant paintbrush does not do him any favours."
"Who are you!?" Core demanded, saving Ink from further embarrassment.
The centre spider shrugged and stepped forward, "We're the representatives of the Spider-Society. Our job is to protect the multiverse, and we have a lot to talk about."