Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Miles first woke up, what he noticed were three things.

One, he was on top of his bed… so he was back in his own dimension.

Two, he was in his Spider-Man suit… so he was back in his original timeline.

And three, he was wearing a watch on his wrist.

Not one engineered from scrap metal and stolen parts and styled to the tune of Hobie Brown. No… this was a standard one from, 2099. The one every spider in the Spider Society was wearing… so depending on what he learned next, this shift in the timeline had either gone incredibly right… or.

Miles heard a knock on the door and looked away from his watch to quickly sit up. Miles then quickly jumped into sweatpants and put a long sleeve jacket on, before zipping it up to his neck and shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Come in,” Miles said, in a voice that definitely didn’t crack.

Miles took an internal sigh of relief when he saw his father walk into the room with an easy smile on his face. He then looked up and down at Miles’ clothes with amusement and hummed before speaking.

“Testing out the whole ‘hiding your suit’ thing for old time’s sake? I can still see it peeking out of your collar you know” His dad laughed as he sat next to him on the bed and nudged him playfully.

“Ahaha yeah, because I’m Spider-Man and you know that now… right,” Miles said as he tried to roll with that new piece of knowledge without sounding suspicious.

His dad then eyed him for a millisecond with a bit of concern in his smile.

“You okay son?” Jeff asked.

“Oh, yeah totally… uh you know me, just woke up from a weird dream I think” Miles played it off.

Jeff nodded.

“Well you know, even Spider-Man needs to slow down and rest. Sometimes a break is needed, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Besides, the world you know will always be here when you wake up”.

‘I hope’, Miles thought.

“Thanks Dad,” Miles said genuinely.

“Anytime,” Jeff said as he ruffled Miles’ afro before putting his hands into his lap.

Miles and his dad then enjoyed the comfortable silence as Miles looked around his room.

All the posters in the same order. Pokemon cards are stashed on the same shelf. Red Jordans instead of Purple. The collectible action figure is still out of the box. The drafting table is still in the same place. Sketchbook open and facing him. A drawing of The Spot in his sketchbook-

A drawing of The Spot in his sketchbook.

‘When did I draw that?’

Miles stared at the open page across the room for a moment, before he slowly walked up to it and held it in his hands. He then stood by his desk, looking down at the picture of Spot waving to him and smiling for a moment, before he ran his fingers thoughtfully down the page.

‘Does this mean that he’s here? Is the Spot?-’

Miles then turned the page towards his Dad, who looked at the drawing.

“Dad, do you know who this is?” Miles asked with a bit of anticipation.

His Dad chuckled a little bit before he answered.

“Of course, that’s The Spot,” Jeff said.

Relief began to flood Miles, and he smiled…

“That’s perfect! So you know him… and you remember everything that happened?” Miles asked.

“Uhh happened? I think, but you’ll have to remind me about his story. You know I love hearing about all the characters you create”.

‘Characters you create’.

“Dad…” Miles said as a sense of realization and dread began to fill him.

Jeff looked at him sheepishly.

“Dad- no Dad he’s real . He almost destroyed New York. Are you sure you don’t know who this is?” Miles asked as he looked at the drawing of Spot.

“Of course I do Miles, he’s your favorite cartoon character… well besides Spider-Man that is” Jeff joked.

Oh no...

And when Miles set down his sketchbook, and sat down at his desk as he tried to talk to his father about other things so he wouldn’t worry… he continued to look at the many drawings of The Spot captured in several colors of the rainbow, and in subtle grays and portraits in black and white, like a game of Othello.

And when he stopped on a sketch of Spot hugging him, with a smile on his face. He looked at the handwritten graffitied letters underneath that said,

‘Your Nemesis’

He knew, there was still one more missing piece left in his story.

Chapter Text

After a week of living in his new reality, Miles learned a few things.

Two years passed, and his family knew he was Spider-Man, he was a respected member of the Spider Society and had never been chased down, Ganke was still his roommate, and he had a baby sister named Billie.

She was cute.

After fawning over her and singing to her, he would work on his assignments while researching what happened at the Alchemax explosion two years ago. The digital trail would promise hope, and all of the events that made him who he was were almost the same...only.

Dr. Johnathon Ohnn, or the villain known as The Spot, didn’t exist in Earth-1610.

Upon learning this, after his family had settled in for the night… Miles walked up the fire escape until he climbed up to the roof of his apartment complex, and looked up at the stars.

He doesn’t exist, but he’s right there in his sketchbook.

Everyone is happy, the world is safe, and everyone accepts him…

But nobody remembers… him.

What could he do? What if there’s nothing that he can do?

Miles then closes his eyes as the wind breezes through his hair, and the stars twinkle overhead.

Stealing money from an ATM, fighting him at Alchemax, trading quips and punches almost playfully until he turned as dark as night in Mumbattan, confronting him and leading his large shadowed spider-form away from the main city population in Earth 1610, diving into the swirling black dome created by his final form, and facing his final form known as The Abyss alone, only to find the heart of the man still inside…

The part of him that was still, oh so human.

Like him.

And then,

“Even if it was only for a day, I’m glad that I was your nemesis”

“Goodbye… my Spider-Man.”

Miles opened his eyes, and at the same time, he looked up, a shooting star graced the night blue sky… as he had one wish.

“I wish that you were back here… with me”.

Chapter Text

Another week passed, but he would still never get used to being invited to these Spider Society meetings. At first, he was indifferent… or at least he tried to act like it, but deep down he still couldn’t get past his inner child excitement at finally being a part of something greater. After all, like a sunflower he loved growing along with others by his side.

Getting used to Miguel leading them with authority but without the animosity towards him from memories Miguel didn’t even have was an adjustment… but he got used to it. It was easier when the older and younger spiders in the room felt more like mentors and friends, than attack dogs.

He even allowed himself to start enjoying it, and if he started to show off a little during missions, well Hobie and Pav were the influence for that. Even Gwen who tried to act mature, joined in too.

Today after his classes, he visited home for the weekend and strapped Billie to the baby carrier on his chest… much like how Peter B. had done with Mayday.

He then opened a portal to Earth-928 and stepped through peacefully until he was in the Lobby of Spider HQ.

He then walked to one of Miguel’s labs where the meeting was being held, to find he was the only one there.

Miguel spotted him and nodded at him to come in, while he typed into a screen.

“You’re early,” Miguel said.

“Yeah I figured I’d come early since it’s my turn to watch Billie and all” Miles said with a slight shrug.

Miles then took off his mask and Billie pulled at his cheeks.

Miguel smiled a soft smile, before turning away before Miles could notice.

“I see, luckily this meeting is short so once everyone is here and present, then we can get to business”.

“Cool, cool” Miles said as he took her out of the carrier and bounced her up and down in his arms. He could tell she wanted to get out, and she started laughing happily.

Soon the other spiders filed into the room, and Pav spotted him first and made Billie laugh, followed by Jess, Peter B., Gwen, and Hobie passing by to see Billie… before they turned to watch as Miguel’s large holo-screens began to display images.

Hobie stood at Miles’ left, Gwen was on his right, and Pav was next to Hobie as Peni, Ham, and Noir shuffled nearby behind them. Margo winked at Billie before joining Lyla at a terminal near Miguel.

Once Kaine, Ben, and a few more of the adult spiders shuffled in, Miguel finished his setup.

In Miles’ arms, Billie began to become restless and Miles knew she wanted to be set down, so Miles tentatively placed her down near his feet and kept an eye on her. Hobie chuckled.

“Little anarchist are we?” Hobie said to Miles before he crouched down to pat her head.

However, like a Morales, Billie had a mind of her own… because instead of going to ‘Uncle Hobie’, she immediately began crawling and walking to the presenter of the room, Miguel.

Miles attempted to swoop Billie up when he read her intent, but like her brother, she was never one to follow the rules.

When Miles carried her up again, she began to cry and several spiders began to turn his way.

“Shhh Billie you can’t see Miguel right now, he’s busy,” Miles said in an attempt at a calming voice.

Billie looked up at him with all the love in the world for two seconds… before it turned into defiance again.

“Nooooo Miggyyy!” Billie yelled, with all the raw defiance of a two-year-old.

A few of the spiders laughed, and Miguel looked at them both.

Miles looked at him back, and Miguel raised an eyebrow with a question in his expression.

Miles knows what he’s asking.

“Okay okay, you can see ‘Miggy’” Miles said.

He then weaved through the crowd of spiders until he was a foot in front of Miguel. Billie immediately stopped crying and cooed once she was in his proximity.

Miguel looked down from Miles’ sheepish expression at Billie in his arms, and then he made sure the sharp talons in his fingers were sheathed and safe before he reached out to transfer Billie into his arms. He then held her secure and fatherly to his chest, like he was used to this.

Miguel then nodded at Miles with a smile, before he turned back to his holo-screens as Miles took his place back next to his friends.

Three large holo-screens then flickered until they displayed an earth number he’d never been to, a man in a red and silver hero suit he had never seen, and an experimental machine that looked like it was hooked up to the inside of the back of a van. It was then that Miguel spoke.

“As I’m sure some of you are aware, this is Earth-199999. The world Peter Parker and Dr. Strange reside in from the dimensional instability we traced two years ago. In this world also resides other individuals with extraordinary capabilities, who also have the ability to manipulate the rules of time and space,” Miguel stated.

“The man in the suit who can shrink his size at will, is Scott Lang, known in his world as Ant-Man” Miguel said.

“Well isn’t that name off the cob” Noir murmured to himself. Peni stifled a laugh.

“In his world, his mentor Dr. Hank Pym, perfected his suit to manipulate size with the use of subatomic particles called Pym Particles. However… in the instance that the suit’s regulator is broken and he was to shrink, then Ant-Man would shrink endlessly until he went subatomic enough to go to an uncharted realm known as the Quantum Realm”

‘Quantum...Realm?’

At this, Miles perked up and he paid more attention.

“The Quantum Realm is a reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant. Not much has been researched about it aside from Dr.Pym’s findings, but effectively once a person becomes subatomic and enters the Quantum Realm, then there is no hope of return, and they are fated to become lost, forever” Miguel said, as he covered Billie’s ears.

“Wowww way to be dramatic” Ham whispered to Miles.

“So no one has come back? What about that guy?” Gwen piped up and pointed to Scott on the screen.

Miguel raised an eyebrow and gave a wary glance at the other curious eyes in the room before he answered.

“He did. He was extremely lucky. But he was suspended there alone, and when he returned, five years of his life had passed” Miguel said.

“Oh,” Gwen said.

Miles wore an expression that said that he was putting together pieces in his head that only he could comprehend. Hobie, who was next to him, knew that look from anywhere, as he eyed him, then looked at the screens without saying anything.

“So… since this is Quantum Mechanics we’re talking about… if something really crazy happened, like someone time traveled and it went wrong, or they went subatomic from getting sucked into a black hole, or even… aha and this is just a hypothetical, but… someone got erased from a timeline… would they wind up, in there?”

Miguel took a moment to digest the question with a confused look at Miles, as others around him and his friends began to look back at him strangely.

Everyone except for Hobie.

“I… don’t know. There are many factors and it’s- It’s too unpredictable to know what could-” Miguel started as he readjusted Billie.

“And... I just finished running the simulation!” Lyla chirped up as she appeared suddenly, and took over the control of the screens, with a hologram TV remote in her hand.

Click!

She then flickered off all three hologram pictures to display three different dimensional diagrams with diagnostics.

“In theory, to answer your question, under a certain set of circumstances there is a non-zero possibility that anyone can enter the quantum realm without the use of specialized equipment, like say a temporal distortion or time travel like you had mentioned. However, once an individual enters the quantum realm, then it becomes… complicated when trying to find them.” Lyla starts, as she gestures and zooms in, to an equation.

            -ℏ²   d²Ψ(x)

EΨ(x)=  ―― ――       + VΨ(x)

             2m      dx²

“This is Schrödinger’s Equation, a time-independent version. Once a person is stuck in the quantum realm it becomes harder to pinpoint their exact location. This is because of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, which asserts that we can’t simultaneously know both the momentum and position of a quantum particle. But! We can gain insight into other essential properties like its energy and wave function”.

“Ughhh I hate math, can you put this into English please” Ben Reilly groaned some ways away.

“Sure thing Benny, basically if someone got lost in the abyss of the quantum realm, if we tried to find them we wouldn’t be able to pin down an exact location.. only a few possibilities of where they could show up. And this is without counting the other factors that might be involved, like trying to get Mig’s new toy to operate” Lyla finished.

She then closed down her diagrams and brought back the three images originally on screen.

“What new toy?” Pavitr asked.

“Oh right, you haven’t gotten to that yet. Your cue boss” Lyla said as she flew away closer to Miguel, and waved to Billie.

“Right, two weeks ago a few senior-level spiders and I went on a reconnaissance mission to Earth-199999, to requisition this,” Miguel said.

He then zoomed in on the new image that appeared, to show a picture of a brown 1972 Ford Econoline van, with a license plate registered to a man named Luis.

“Oi! So we’re just nicking stuff from other worlds now?” Hobie asked with his arms crossed.

“It was for the greater good of the multiverse, this van’s potential is dangerous,” Miguel said.

He then murmured under his breath “y no puedes contarme sobre robar cosas”.

“Then what’s so special about it?” Gwen asked curiously. Miguel then changed the picture to reveal the inside of the van.

“This van was engineered by Dr. Pym to open a direct tunnel to the Quantum Realm”.

‘A direct tunnel to the quantum realm’. Miles echoed.

“Not long after we acquired it, Lyla also picked up a signal from the quantum realm when we ran our first structured test on it two weeks ago,” Miguel said.

‘Two weeks ago… that’s when I ‘woke up’ back here’.

“Lyla- do the thing,” Miguel said with a gesture of his chin while Billie grabbed onto his cheek.

“You got it, boss. Playing recording now.” Lyla said with a smile.

Unidentified_Quantum_Signal_001.AUDIO2099

0:00 ━❍──────── -5:32

↻ ⊲ Ⅱ ⊳ ↺

VOLUME: ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇ 100%

“…Your costume’s too tight in the back by the way... you turn your phone off in a movie theater but you don’t turn it off when you’re fighting me?… I created you, and you created me... See you back home, Spider-Man…”

The signal then increased in noise feedback, like static from a CRT television… before the audio leveled out, and continued.

“I need you, and the world will always need Spider-Man”… “You’re alone, aren’t you?”… “Millennial I-Pad baby”… “After you, my nemesis” … “in the end, you still chose to save me”… “Goodbye, My Spider-Man” … “I know you’re going to college soon, and I never got the chance to tell you this but I-”

And then the audio signal ended.

In a silent room full of spiders…

There was only one Spider-Man, who recognized the voice, of his one and only nemesis.

“Who was that?” Ben asked the room.

“Spot,” Miles said breathlessly. “Oh my god...” Miles said as he took a step towards the screen and raised a hand over his mouth, in surprise. He then lowered his hand and placed both hands on his hips, then took something between a laugh and an exhale.

“He’s alive,” Miles said as he laughed, and relief fled into his senses.

“Spot?” Gwen asked. “Who’s Spot?” Gwen asked.

“He’s… he’s my nemesis. He saved the entire multiverse and somehow, I’m going to return the favor” Miles said determinedly.

Gwen’s confusion deepened, but then it morphed into concern as she noticed Miles’ resolve. Once Miles Morales had an idea in his head, no one was going to stop him.

“Now we don’t know who this is, or if this is one or several people, but without proper equipment it’s too much of a risk to proceed with a rescue mission. However, we have determined that studying this signal and tracking its behavior, may give us insight into how to send signals down into the quantum realm, now that one has been received. With that said, due to the risks and dangers that come with using it… until we conduct further tests and research, no one in Headquarters is to tamper with, fiddle with, project to, hack, clone, or run tests on this van without further notice. If no one has any questions, that is all.” Miguel finished.

Miguel then looked right at Miles, like it was him he was warning him not to do anything, and Miles’ heart skipped a beat. He then looked to the side, only to realize Miguel was looking pointedly at Hobie, who was behind Miles instead.

Hobie smiled back at Miguel with a sly grin, and raised up his hands innocently when he said,

“Don’t have to worry about me mate, you know what they say. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Miguel shook his head.

Hobie then gave Miles a knowing look, as if he had already read what was going on in his head… before he winked at Miles like he was in on an inside joke.

‘... He won’t tell anyone'

Chapter Text

Miles paced in his room, the way he did not when he was worried about something, but the way he did when he needed movement to think.

He’s not worried about the red tape and the guards posted up outside and inside Miguel’s lab in the west sector. If he can outrun the entire Spider Society and make a getaway in the Go Home Machine, then sneaking into a lab undetected would be a piece of cake.

He’s not worried about getting in. He’s worried about finding Spot, and getting Spot and himself out, if that’s even possible.

After a few moments of pacing, he opened his Physics textbook and flipped through a few chapters of quantum mechanics, wave functions, and light and matter before he closed the book again. There was only so much you could learn from a high school AP Physics textbook.

Miles then retrieved his laptop from his bag and flopped on his bed as he opened Google and searched for more in-depth quantum theories that might help him in some way…

‘Okay, Google has anyone on my earth other than me traveled to other dimensions and discovered a way to go into the quantum realm and come back? And can you give me the formula or how you did it?’

After a few moments of scrolling through the results and clicking on different tabs, he closed the window to the web page and closed his laptop to lean back on his pillow, with his hands behind his head.

‘Figured not’ Miles thought.

For a moment, Miles laid there, and appreciated the comfortable silence of a lazy Sunday afternoon, as the sounds of the city muffled below out of his window, and the rays of the sun streamed through his curtains. Maybe he should take a break and go outside.

When he first checked the calendar after he woke up in this version of his dimension’s timeline, it had been the end of March. Now it was almost the end of April, and May was around the corner. It was finally getting warmer.

Miles then got off of his bed and stood to do some stretches, before opening his closet and parting his clothes like the sea until he revealed his Spider-Suit. Now would be a perfect day for swinging.

If he somehow succeeded and brought Spot back, he still didn’t know how that would affect his dimension’s timeline, or even how much time would pass on his earth if he left and came back, at all.

However, as brilliant as Miles was, he knew there was no use turning theories and equations and what-if’s in his head when he didn’t have all the answers. His rhythm was different; because even if there was no logical way to solve the problem, and he wasn’t a scientist who could calculate and bend the rules of quantum postulates, he knew he’d break through and find a way to do it anyway.

After all, he’s Spider-Man.

He’ll do his own thing.

A few hours of swinging around and three robberies thwarted later, Spider-Man re-entered his childhood bedroom through his window. He briefly assessed himself for any stray injuries he didn’t catch, and when he found there were none, he pulled out a set of pajamas from his drawers and went to do his night routine.

When he came back to his room after watching a movie with his family, and Rio had put Billie to bed… Miles flopped onto his bed and started scrolling through his phone.

His favorite web-comic updated, J. Jonah Jameson theorized Spider-Man was secretly an actor, rumors surfaced that Daredevil was a blind lawyer, and Electro started his music career by becoming a mumble rapper. After he opened YouTube and watched his latest song, he laughed to himself before he exited out of the app and turned off his phone for the night.

After he put it on the charger and turned off his light, to sleep for the night… he took one more glance across the room at the closed sketchbook on his desk before he allowed himself to drift off to his dreams.

‘Goodnight’.

Chapter Text

Miles fulfilled his promise to Ganke and Judge.

His friends didn’t remember it, but Miles was a man (teen) of his word.

After class, the trio walked down to Foam Party, the coffee shop a few blocks down from their school. Ganke and Judge didn’t know why Miles wanted to go there, but they both shrugged and said ‘Sure’, any excuse to get off campus. Maybe they could even go to the arcade later.

Foam Party was still the same cute little coffee shop, but with its growing popularity they began to expand their territory into ice cream. Most of them were coffee-flavored but some fun flavors were for their true target audience, teenagers .

And as Miles sipped on his strawberry milkshake, this time he didn’t mind falling prey to capitalism. He could see Hobie already making a joke about it.

After the trio went to the arcade and had a fun day out, they then talked about anything and everything on their way back to Vision’s campus.

Once the three split off to their dorm rooms across the halls, Miles and Ganke went to their dorm room and settled in for the evening. Tomorrow, Miles would visit his parents for another weekend, so Ganke would have the room to himself again. Once Miles lounged in his pajamas as he lay on the top bunk, Ganke looked up over his shoulder at him before he returned to playing the game on his computer.

“You’ve been visiting a lot, you good man?” Ganke asked into the air.

Miles stopped scrolling on his phone and looked down at him, slightly surprised. He then clicked off his phone and put it to the side.

“Yeah uhh, you know just checking on my sister,” Miles said.

“Ah… I gotcha. Big brother stuff. The ‘no one will come within twenty feet of my sister or I’ll web you up’ type of vibe” Ganke said with a smile.

Miles laughed softly.

“Pretty much,” Miles said.

“I feel that… how’s everything else going with you though? Is there anything taking up a spot in your mind?” Ganke asked… with a slight suspicion.

“ Eh, you know me, doing schoolwork by day, swinging around by night. Still doing my own thing… why?” Miles asked.

Ganke then paused the game and looked over his shoulder at Miles, then looked over to the sketchbook on Miles’ desk. Ganke then did a dramatic slow spin around in his gaming chair to face Miles, like he was a godfather (or even Kingpin himself). He then looked up at Miles and said,

“Dude… You’re a bad liar”

Huh?

“What? What do you mean?” Miles asked as he sat up.

Where was this coming from?

“Bro you know what I mean,” Ganke said.

“I really don’t man,” Miles said as he shaked his head.

Ganke then looked at Miles’ sketchbook, before he got up to walk towards it… and by the time Miles realized what this was about and thought to use his web-shooters to ‘thwip’ the book into his hand, it was already too late. Ganke then walked back into his chair and flipped through all the pages.

Dad. Dad. Mom. Mom. Aaron. Aaron. Peter. Peter B. Peni. Ham. Noir. Gwen. Gwen. Gwen. Prowler. Hobie. Bisexual quiz results, Miguel. Jess. Margo. Ganke. Billie. Dad. Equations. Laundry List. Mission Notes. Physics (who’s handwriting is that?). Judge’s poems and doodles. The Spot. The Spot. Spot. Spot. Spot. Plan to Extract. Getaway Plan Mach 2. Whack a mole Getaway Plan Mach 3. Testing Lab door codes, Pym Particles, How to get into the Quantum Realm and get out?

Ganke then reviewed some of the pages some more and then closed the book. He then looked up at Miles, and for once... he’d never seen Ganke look more serious in his life.

“You want to tell me… why you’re trying to jump into a place you said no one gets out of, to save a guy that isn’t real, Spider-Man?” Ganke asked with an eyebrow raised.

Miles opened his mouth as if he was going to give an excuse, but then exhaled as he aborted it. There was no getting around Ganke, he was just as stubborn as he was. He was his best friend, after all. He had been ever since he became Spider-Man.

So from the beginning, Miles folded and told him the entire story, and he came clean with all of it.

…

“That was the wildest story I’ve ever heard, bro” Ganke said, after a long pause.

“Yeah…” Miles agreed.

“So… you almost went on a date with Gwen, then chased her across the multiverse because you thought you’d never see her again. Then got trapped by the leader of the Spider-Man empire. Escaped. Wound up in another dimension with your other self, went to Hobie’s, then went back home and everyone teamed up Avengers-style to fight a literal hole-filled eldritch boss monster, then you went into his core and stopped him with the power of therapy, then he fixed the entire multiverse by erasing himself like the plot of an isekai anime… am I right so far?” Ganke asked.

“It wasn’t a ‘date’… but uh yeah pretty much” Miles shrugged.

“And then- you woke up in another dimension where you had a perfectly normal, average, high-school sitcom life?” Ganke asked.

“Yep,” Miles said.

“Bro, why didn’t you choose to stay there?” Ganke asked.

Miles paused, and then he answered.

“I’m Spider-Man” Miles said definitively.

“But if you wanted to, you didn’t have to be,” Ganke said pointedly.

Miles knew he didn’t say that because he didn’t believe in him. He said it because he knew that no matter how much honor Miles had at being a hero… sometimes it weighed on him. Crowns were heavy.

“I… I know” Miles said to Ganke, as he communicated more with his eyes than his words.

Judge called it ‘best friend telepathy’.

Miles then took a moment and shuffled out of his bunk and climbed down to sit on Ganke’s bunk instead. The two now sat across from each other.

“I know… I know sometimes I complain, and I know I come back sometimes with more scars that I need to hide before they’re even fully healed. I know every time I put on the mask I put myself in danger, and sacrifice more than anyone else would ever know just to keep my city safe… but if anyone asked me if I would choose to be Spider-Man over having a normal life… then I wouldn’t trade being Spider-Man, for anything.” Miles said with resolve.

‘And there it is’ Ganke thought as he nodded to himself.

“I figured… and that was the cheesiest hero speech I’ve ever heard. Only Spider-Man would say that” Ganke said with a small smirk.

“Heh well, you’re right about that one” Miles smiled.

Ganke hummed and then lightly tapped on the sketchbook nearby.

“So, then you wound up here. Found out your ‘nemesis’ is still alive, but the risk is too dangerous and unpredictable to take if you wanna save him…” Ganke said.

“Yeah,” Miles said.

“And right now you maybe only have like, half of a plan,” Ganke said.

“Pretty much” Miles smiled warily.

“And… There’s 100 percent, no way to talk you out of it?” Ganke asked as he raised an eyebrow.

“Nope,” Miles said simply.

Ganke shaked his head, before he sighed... and then began to chuckle to himself in the way that only a best friend who knew his best friend by heart, would do.

“You are actually insane you know that?” Ganke said.

“Maybe” Miles nodded.

Ganke smirked and then took the sketchbook and opened it to a page with The Spot on one side, and physics equations and escape plans on the other, then he looked at Miles and said…

“But, then again, when has that ever stopped you before?” Ganke said… as the light glinted off his glasses like he was entering the game.

Miles’ eyebrows then raised, until a wide smile filled his entire face.

Ganke then reached for a grape soda can on his desk and tossed it to Miles. Before he opened a can of his own.

“Then, if you really want to do this… let’s get to work, Spider-Man” Ganke said.

‘And you say you’re not my guy in the chair… aight then,

Let’s do this, one more time.’

The rest of the night, the two teens stayed up while playing music from a Bluetooth speaker, as they went through a montage of different plans and theories while making some minor breakthroughs. And even if they didn’t have all the science and answers right now, Miles felt like he was finally headed in the right direction. After all, what fun is indulging in something that’s probably quantumly a bad idea… without the unbridled spirit of a little teenage mayhem?

Chapter Text

The next day, Miles settled into his room at home after his father picked him up from campus for the weekend. After a relaxing day at home, he now lounged in his room after he finished his homework and played video games. College wasn’t that far away now, and in a few months, things would look very different. He hoped Ganke would be able to come with him.

For now, though, he was content to be in his childhood room, which reminded him of times when things were normal, but also of times when he first became Spider-Man, and everything changed. Even now, since jumping from one universe to another, the first place he woke up, was here. Right where he was loved.

Home.

But even as he looked up at the ceiling where he and his friends had painted their own pictures, and to the walls where his own comic, band, anime, and sports posters hung on his wall… there was still one person he wanted to be home, too.

Miles closed his eyes for a moment, as he laid his hands behind his head and laid on top of the covers. He then looked across to his bookshelf where his dimensional watch was hidden between a few books, with a faint glow.

What was he missing? He knew he could wing the infiltration, he had the door codes… if he needed them, and knew how to operate the van from when he snuck in and looked at the HQ security footage, but how could he possibly pinpoint where Spot was in the quantum realm, and once he was there… how could he get them both out?

“Hey... If our plan works and I get there, but I don’t come back… can you take care of my sister and my family?”

“Yeah man, I will… but also if you get stuck. And I help get you back out… you owe me”

“Deal”

Miles slowly sat up and walked to his bookshelf, until he retrieved the watch from the crevices of his textbooks and comics. He then went back to sitting on his bed while fiddling with it absentmindedly in his hands.

Schrödinger’s Equation. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. Dark Matter and Photons. Time and Space. Odds and Probabilities. How do you solve an equation to a problem with only one more missing piece?

Miles with his fidgeting, then accidentally pressed a button on the side of the watch, which became the start of his answer.

You could call it Entropy.

A hologram then filled the space of the room before him, which showed diagrams and footage of various worlds, with an internet search bar at the top, before a copy of Lyla’s voice sounded through the speaker.

‘Welcome to the 2099 Dimensional Database Web Search Engine! Your number one search engine for all things Arachno-Humanoid Poly Multi-verse, but without the ads. Is there something you would like to look up today user Miles_GOAT_Morales [Earth-1610B]?’

‘What? What is this??’

“Woah woah woah, what is this?” Miles asked, stunned as he looked around the room at the hologram projections.

“Basically Interdimensional Google… or do you use Pyrofox?” Lyla’s voice said.

“Wait… so, I can search anything in the Spiderverse?” Miles asked in mild disbelief.

“That’s right~ It’s our motto that information should be easily accessible. It’s better to know what’s going on before you plan.” Lyla said, and Miles could feel the wink in her voice.

‘...She doesn’t know what I’m planning does she?’

“Oh okay…” Miles said.

A watch that can search the entire multiverse at his fingertips. It really can do everything, except tell time. Just kidding, it can tell time too. But now that the opportunity is in front of him, what does he search? Maybe he should start with that Scott guy?

“Uh… can you show me what you know about that Ant guy? Ant-Man. Scott Lang. From Earth-199999?” Miles asked.

Various holo-screens were then illuminated and moved to fulfill his request.

“Gotcha~ This is Scott Edward Harris Lang. Former Thief turned hero and Avenger. His abilities include: Size Manipulation, Superhuman Strength, Superhuman Durability, and Insect Manipulation. His abilities are derived from the Ant-Man suit created and engineered by Dr. Hank Pym. He is also known to be a skilled tactician, trained in martial arts, and has a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. His other suits and gadgets include: Pym Particle Discs, Quantum Realm Exploration Suit, and the Advanced Tech Suit” Lyla stated.

Miles looked at the profile of Ant-Man that glowed on screen like a superhero wiki page, and scanned his eyes over it and the diagrams of his gear… before his eyes landed on the quote that was underneath his picture.

"Look out for the little guy. Make mistakes. Take chances. Because if there’s one thing life’s taught me, there’s always room to grow." - Scott Lang

A former criminal turned hero… in a way, he reminded him of his Uncle. In another life, his Uncle probably could’ve turned out to be like this guy, if he was given the chance. Still, Miles believed that. The proof was there with his counterpart and his uncle on Earth-42.

Miles could scan over this page later, he needed the scientist behind the suit.

“Okay cool and thank you, save that page. Can you search what you know about his mentor, Dr. Pym?” Miles asked.

“Sure thing~” Lyla said as the Ant-Man screen minimized and a new holo-window appeared in front of him.

“This is Doctor Henry Jonathan Pym. War hero, Entomologist and Physicist, known as the original Ant-Man. He founded Pym Technologies and created the Pym Particles that give the Ant-Man suit the ability to change size and shape on a subatomic level. These subatomic particles are what led to first contact with the Quantum Realm. His abilities were the same as Scott’s when he wore the suit, but after passing the mantle he took on a mentorship role. He has mastery over engineering, nanotechnology, business, and combat, while also having trained his daughter Hope van Dyne who is the hero known as The Wasp. Dr. Pym and Hope van Dyne are also the engineers of the Quantum Van that can open a direct tunnel to the Quantum Realm [Currently restricted to Earth-928 for Quarantine and Research]"

Oh wow… Dad would probably like him. Wait- this guy’s name is Jonathan? Haha, what is it with guys named Jonathan and Quantum Physics?

“Okay, so a guy, a war vet, and his daughter became heroes and then made a tunnel to the Quantum Realm in the back of someone’s van… and this the same dimension that stuff happened with Peter and Dr.Strange?” Miles asked, mostly to himself.

“Pretty much, it’s quite the party over there,” Lyla said.

“Wow… okay so…” Miles started.

“Flip back to Ant-Man, please,” Miles said, as he put the watch on his bed and got up and retrieved his sketchbook and an erasable pen. He then sat upright on the bed and rested his back on the front wall of the bed, and opened the sketchbook to a blank page.

The screens then shifted to display the previous webpages again.

Miles looked at the different screens and diagrams, pausing every now and then to take a few notes in his sketchbook. So his suit can grow subatomic and can come back to its normal height? Why does it say here that Scott has actually done this twice?

Miguel didn’t mention that.

“Why does it say that he went into the quantum realm and came back, twice?” Miles asked.

Lyla opened a video of Ant-Man fighting a villain in his daughter’s bedroom. The video then showed Ant-Man shrinking to subatomic size to infiltrate a villain's tech, before coming back to normal size. Miles asked her to rewind the video and play the footage again from different angles.

‘But how?’

“Lyla, what gadgets did he have on him when he did this?” Miles asked.

“Analyzing… in this moment it looks like the only tech he had is his Ant-Man suit, size regulator belt, and Pym particle discs,” Lyla said.

Miles tried to turn some gears in his head. He knew that some discs could make objects shrink, and the other discs could make objects grow larger. The regulator on his belt can help him shrink, so what if…

Then an idea crossed his mind.

“If you shrank endlessly in the Quantum Realm… then what would happen if he used one of those Pym particle discs to grow in the Quantum Realm instead?” Miles asked.

Lyla paused into an extended silence for a moment… as if this was a movement in a Checkers game against an AI that the robot had never anticipated. A new possibility, that was never thought of before.

Instead of responding, Lyla pulled up screens at a rapid pace as if she were on a mission of her own while fulfilling his request. Miles saw all sorts of models and equations fly across screens and shift into diagrams and models he wouldn’t be able to describe if you told him to… until her calculations stopped until the recreation of this possibility appeared on one large screen.

“Running simulation now,” Lyla said with anticipation.

The hologram video showed Ant-Man shrinking endlessly into a void-like abyss, trying to activate his Ant-Man suit to grow in size, to no avail… until Scott opens the compartment on his regulator belt and replaces the power source inside with a Pym particle disc. Ant-Man then activates his suit, and the simulation ends with a successful rescue. The hologram then showed the simulation, side by side with the real footage of Scott reappearing in his daughter’s bedroom.

“Wow… simple, but effective. I don’t think I could’ve thought of that” Lyla said impressed.

Miles felt like he just solved Miguel’s impossible quantum problem for him. He felt big like he was on the cusp of something. Something that was on the brink of converging possibilities. And the very real possibility, that Miles could save The Spot, after all.

“So it’s possible… it actually is” Miles said with relief, and surprise at himself.

‘And if it is...then, let’s do this.’

Only a few things left to do.

“So uh… can other people see what I’m searching?” Miles asked nonchalantly like he was trying to play innocent.

“Kinda yeah, though with the entire society searching things… security on websearches only gets flagged if it’s for something really dangerous,” Lyla said.

That makes sense… still.

“Okay, can you erase my search history, and if there’s an incognito mode… like without the surveillance and data sharing, can you put me on that?” Miles asked, straight up.

“Oooh~ someone is taking a page out of Hobie’s book. At least you aren’t messing with my code. I can put you on private boy genius, however after ten minutes this will alert Miguel’s security database. Are you ready?” Lyla asked.

Miles only needed seven minutes.

“Yes,” Miles said.

“Okay, clearing history and switching to incognito mode,” Lyla said.

The screens then switched from orange and neon to purple and red blank hologram screens, with a search bar at the top. A cursor blinked readily.

“Okay Lyla, show me the location of the Quantum Van, and all variations of the Pym Particle Discs, and the Ant-Man suit in Spider HQ”.

“Showing all locations now,” Lyla said.

And they all pointed to one location.

Miguel’s lab, in the west sector.

And with a smile on his face, Miles knew that his rescue plan was just getting started.

…

Elsewhere it was the evening on Earth-928 at Miguel’s home when Lyla appeared right behind Miguel… Miguel, who currently sat on his couch with Jessica Drew watching a TV Show.

“Hey Boss~,” Lyla said.

Miguel looked over his shoulder, as he held the remote in his hand.

“Yeah?” Miguel asked easily.

“Miles Morales from Earth-1610B has shut off the security surveillance on his goober while doing an interdimensional websearch about the Quantum Van and the Ant-Man from Earth-199999”.

“He wouldn’t be the first... but Miles is a good kid, I trust him. Now if that’s all, I’m going back to watching Classical Television”.

Miguel then turned his head back to the TV as he sat on the couch with Jess, as they watched an episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Jess looked at him in disbelief.

“Miguel I was watching this with you as a joke , I didn’t expect you to get invested in this-” Jess said.

“Shh the episode is about to start” Miguel said, as he put down the remote and picked up and swirled around a glass of a mocktail in one hand.

Jess shook her head and laughed as she started picking food from the charcuterie board full of snacks that Miguel had prepared.

What was she gonna do with him?

Chapter Text

After a full night of research, Miles Morales was putting the finishing touches on his masterpiece… his rescue and escape plan.

After a hectic day at school, followed by a run-in with another villain of the week, Miles in his Spider-Man suit, climbed through the window of his dorm room and uncloaked his invisibility. He then dusted himself off and switched into some lounge clothes before he grabbed his shower caddy and headed down the corridor to the showering hall.

After some time, he came back wearing a black Tyler the Creator T-shirt, and black and red shorts while drying his hair with a towel that was around his neck. After he completed his hair and skincare routine (thank you cocoa butter), he then turned on Ganke’s TV with the Roku TV remote as he lay on his bunk bed peacefully. He then checked the news to see footage of himself stopping Mysterio in one of his schemes, before webbing up the glass dome on his head and securing him to a flag pole near his dad’s police station. He then checked his text messages and saw that his Dad gave him a thumbs-up. He chuckled.

He then pressed a button on the remote to watch an anime on FlixNet he liked to put on, while he doodled in his sketchbook. Lately, he’s been working hard, planning out every move, so much his metacognition even leaked into his homework habits… not that his grades would complain. And even the last few drawings he’s made have been pretty ambitious and planned out… but right now, he chose to take a load off and let his imagination flow, without a plan. Miles knew how to live life day by day, and knew sometimes the greatest art pieces he’s made, have come from happy accidents, and a trust to just let his imagination flow. He was good at that… improv was where he thrived, and what he was made for.

Miles smiled to himself as he drew a portrait of Goku and Vegeta, fighting Sonic and Shadow the Hedgehog, before grabbing his inking pens and Copic markers to color it in. He smiled at it once his masterpiece was finished. He then signed it with his special artist tag and wrote the date on it. He then took a picture of it on his phone and sent it to his group chat with his Spider friends, plus Ganke and Judge. Most of the group gave good reaction emojis and Pav, Hobie, and Miles G. were the first to comment, with Miles G. saying he was gonna draw that too when he got home. Miles smiled at that and texted them back.

After a while, he then closed out of his messages and opened up Spotify on his phone and shuffled the queue, before connecting his Sony Bluetooth headphones. Once he put them on his head, he then adjusted the volume and laid back in bed with his eyes closed and a smile on his face.

He listened to a Frank Ocean song before it smoothly transitioned into a Tyler the Creator song called, I Think.

(🎵)

‘I remember this song… I used to loop it a lot the first time I grew a crush on… but she left and then… well, everything else. Still, at least I saved the multiverse and it all turned out for the better… and I still get to see everyone again, whenever I want’

‘Everyone except for…’

I don't know where I'm going

But I know what I'm showing

Feelings, that's what I'm pouring

What the fuck is your motive?

‘Damn, stupid villain of the week… all of this dimension-hopping, and timeline shifting because of a bagel and an ATM Machine. I mean ATM… Why did you have to go and do all of that huh? And then transport me to another world...without you.’

Man, I wish you would call me

By your name 'cause I'm sorry

This is not apology

You are such a distraction

‘I say I’m saving you because I’m a hero,

but the truth is,

I don’t know why...but

I just can’t get you out of my head.’

Mess with T on-off

Fuckin' up my ambiance, pause

You drive me cuckoo and I cough

'Cause I want you like Leon Ware

‘I don’t even know you like that man. We met in less than twenty-four hours, and you turned my world upside down. You made me fight you. Made me scared of you. Made me fight for my life and hate you… but I saw you, man. I knew what you were going through, felt like… I’m probably the only one that does...’

I think I'm falling in love

This time I think it's for real

I think I'm falling in love

This time I think it's for real

‘And then you give this big apology speech,

and right before you disappeared for good…

you smiled at me, one last time.

What else was I supposed to do about that?’

How can I tell you?

How can I tell you?

How can I tell you?

How can I tell you?

'When I find you, and you tell me you left all those clues,

all these puzzle pieces, and these alternate realities,

just for me to have the choice again to save you…'

I notice that you're there, but I'm always in your hair

And you're always in my mind, maybe so

Wasted, boy, I need your attention

I'm off balance, I need some fixin'

I'm your puppet, you are Jim Henson

'If you tell me you don’t want to be saved…

Then I’ll be selfish, and do it anyway'.

'Since you think I’d be fine to make my world spin,

And leave me with just the memory of you,

Then that will be my sweet revenge.

My... nemesis'.

Fall in love now

I think I'm falling in love

Fell in love now

This time I think it's for real

I think I'm in love now

I think I'm falling in love

I think I'm in love now

This time I think it's for real

How can I tell you?

How can I tell you?

How can I tell you?

How can I tell you?

‘Maybe I really am crazy…

Someone please give me a sign, I’m not crazy’

Suddenly Miles jolted upright at the loud clanging of a phone alarm blaring through his headphones. He then snatched them off, shut off the dinner alarm on his phone, and knocked his sketchbook off his bed in the process. Miles then took a breath, and shook his head to tell himself to pull it together… Then, when he climbed down his bed and reached for his open sketchbook on the floor…

What he saw, was something he didn’t notice before… something left behind.

‘That’s not my handwriting’

Opened on the floor, hidden among some of the unused pages in the back of his sketchbook… was a page with equations, rewritten as a command in Python coding format.

With the top of the page titled, ‘If You Mean It’.

And the very bottom of the page in rounded silly penmanship, it said ‘The Spot’.

And underneath it, in professional cursive is signed ‘Johnathon Ohnn, aka your Nemesis’.

And suddenly... slowly,

Miles feels like he’s not completely crazy, after all.

…

The next day, Miles finished a meeting at Spider HQ and subtly decided to hang around the facility… to get to know the place. There are a lot of places and facilities he hasn’t been to yet, a lot of entryways and exits he hasn’t taken yet, and a lot of places with tech and gear, and many places to hide . Miles isn’t casing the place, or staking it out for one of his plans… nah, he was just… getting familiar, with the layout of things.

“Oi mate!” Hobie yelled from behind him.

“Ahh! Oh – it’s you, you had me for a second. I mean, what’s good Hobie?” Miles smiled and recovered.

Hobie can smell a stakeout and a scheme from a mile away. Hobie flashed a catlike grin at Miles, before returning to an innocent expression. Well innocent but smug enough for Hobie anyway…

“Nothing much bruv, just thought I’d catch up with my favorite araña,” Hobie said as he grabbed Miles and gave him a noogie. Miles laughed and looked to the side and around them, not suspiciously of course.

“You’re funny bro, and isn’t Pav your favorite?” Miles joked.

“I have a lot of favorites, I don’t believe in hierarchies” Hobie joked as he let him go.

He then readjusted the guitar on his back as he fell into step next to Miles.

‘Shoot, he’s trying to figure me out isn’t he?’ Miles thought.

Miles knew Hobie would be the last person to snitch on him if he knew what he was planning… but still, he felt like this would only work if he did this solo.

“You surprised me, I thought you would’ve gone off to your world by now,” Hobie said easily.

“Yeah, well… I thought that I hadn’t really seen much of the place, so I thought I’d explore it some more” Miles said.

Hobie raised an eyebrow in amusement.

“Curious are we? Like Schrödinger’s cat?” Hobie said easily.

Miles turned his head to him, with a barely schooled expression.

“What?” Miles asked.

“Curious like a cat? Meow meow, nyah nyah and all that” Hobie said.

“You’re spending too much time with Margo” Miles laughed.

“Guilty until proven innocent” Hobie smirked.

“That’s not how that saying goes,” Miles said with a smile, as they walked past one of the open area food courts.

“Speaking of going, you see that prehistoric bloke there eating millennia knows what?”

Miles looked around the food court to see if he was talking about one of the Peters before he glanced all the way up to Spider-Rex sitting in the middle. Pter was hidden in plain sight while eating grilled hadrosaurs.

“Oh, yeah?” Miles asked.

“He doesn’t come here often, but every other Saturday they cook up his favorite and give him all the kitchen leftovers for free at the end of the week,” Hobie said as they continued walking.

“Okay… that’s nice of them I guess,” Miles said.

‘Why was he telling me this?’

Hobie then launched a web up to a higher platform going in another direction, before looking over his shoulder.

“C’mon, mate! Up there… we’ll do some more exploring” Hobie said, before he took the leap and swung away.

“Huh? Wait Hobie!” Miles yelled as he webbed up to the platform too, and trailed after him once his feet touched the ground.

“Nice reflexes, you like to run?” Hobie asked as he kept walking.

“Yeah- I mean, where are we going?” Miles asked.

“Don’t worry about that, we’re just having a look around” Hobie said as he turned to him while walking backwards with his hands in his vest pockets.

Once Hobie caught his eye, he subtly nodded up to a 2099 standard security camera in the upper corner, and Miles followed his gaze up to it, before they walked out of its range… behind a wall.

A blind spot.

“Liking the adventure yet?” Hobie said with a scheming expression, partially covered in shadow.

‘Oh… I see. He’s helping me out, just like before.

You know what, sure why not?’

“Yeah... I think it’s good to get outside the house” Miles said with a sly smile of his own, that betrayed his true meaning.

Hobie and Miles then proceeded to joke and chat together, while they walked and webbed around different parts of the headquarters. Like they were simply taking a stroll around a school… and not secretly marking camera locations, escape routes, guard rotations, and other points of interest. Just two Spider-Men having a laugh. Not two heroes with the potential to be the Prowler in another life, and not two vigilantes who knew how to navigate the line of good and bad, who rebelled and broke the rules.

Once their little game of charades was coming to an end, and they landed somewhere near the Medbay… Hobie nodded silently in a direction down a more secluded and empty hall with no cams. Near the janitor closets, where they stashed their extra medical supplies.

Miles followed him down the darker pathway, as red hall lights bounced off of their silhouettes; and once they were out of earshot from everyone else, Hobie grabbed Miles and shoved them both into a broom closet before shutting the door.

Hobie then looked down at Miles in the low light, and put a hand next to his head on the opposite wall… as he leaned over him with a slightly more serious expression.

“All right mate, enough teasing. No bullshit. What are you doing, and what are you planning?” Hobie asked with his dark eyelashes.

Miles briefly registered their proximity, then sighed… and looked up at him.

“... I know who’s stuck in the Quantum Realm that Miguel was talking about. I’m the only one who does. And I’m going to go in and break him out” Miles said in a low tone, with simmering fire in his eyes.

‘Oi if looks could kill… you really want this man out that badly huh? ...Aight’.

Hobie pulled away, and then typed in his Earth Number: Earth-138B, into his watch. Then a portal manifested behind Miles onto the wall. Hobie then took Miles’ wrist as Miles’ expression shifted into surprise before he let Hobie lead him, and the two stepped through.

On the other side, they landed on the ground, and Miles saw walls littered with punk posters, amplifiers, beanbags, a bed, a chair with clothes on it, a small dresser and cracked mirror, and an old 70’s music setup.

EARTH-138.

Hobie’s room. 1978.

“Sit anywhere you like mate, and let’s talk,” Hobie said, as he took off and set down his guitar, then fished out the homemade audio signal jammer that was in his pocket, and put it on his dresser. It was blinking red, still activated.

Hobie then sat on his bed in a criss-cross position, while Miles flopped into a beanbag.

“So, you want to break out a man stuck in that brown van that they’ve got impounded. Why is that?” Hobie asked.

“It’s a long story, a very long story” Miles groaned with a resigned smile on his face.

“I’ve got tick and tock, and I love a good story,” Hobie said with a smile.

Miles leaned back, until he sank fully into the comfort of the beanbag, and said,

“Then get ready, because this is going to be a long one”.

And Hobie raised an eyebrow.

…

“Miles… that was the craziest jackanory I have ever heard,” Hobie said, as he looked more surprised than his usually cooled expressions held back.

“Yeah...” Miles said with an ‘I told you so’ look.

“I’m talking, absolutely bonkers”.

“I know,” Miles said.

“And you want to Beauty and The Beast this operation, and then bring him back?” Hobie said with an exasperated look.

“Yes. Wait no- Please don’t put it like that” Miles said as he tried to ignore the heat spreading on his face.

Miles didn’t know if it was from Hobie calling him ‘beauty’, or the larger image that flashed through his mind of him dancing with The Spot in a dress… but he didn’t want to unpack that right now.

“Bruv… this lowkey sounds like a mission with a one-way ticket,” Hobie said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I know- Look… I know” Miles said, more calmly. “I know it’s crazy, and I know there’s still some what-ifs… but I’m not going to not try,” Miles said.

Hobie then removed his hand from his face and studied him for a moment, listening.

Miles knew this was risky, and that even Hobie had a limit. He felt bad.. but there was no way he wasn’t going to do this, and he knew Hobie knew that. The least he could do, whether he tried to stop him or not… was tell him why. Miles knew that was what Hobie was really looking for, the why.

“Why?” Hobie asked.

‘Because he saved the world...

Because I need to make him pay…

Because I’m a hero…

Because he’s not just a villain...

Because he gave me choices …

Because he doesn’t have any…

Because...'

“...Because he needs me,” Miles said.

And Hobie took in that answer… and scrutinized him with his eyes, and Miles suddenly felt vulnerable like see-through glass.

“...And what about, you?”

“What?”

“Do you? Do you need him?” Hobie asked.

The question takes Miles aback, and he thinks about it… because how?

At what point did this ‘heroic selfless act’ of his become warped into something more complicated, and almost obsessive? If he was a hero, then why in the world would he want to bring back the guy who almost destroyed the entire multiverse? When did his logic ebb away into something selfish… that even he didn’t fully understand?

The Answer? His answer...

He felt it inexplicably bubbling to the surface... tangled up in a complicated string of emotions he didn’t know how to decompile, or how to unpack yet… but the one undeniable feeling he did have, that burned to the surface like fire and ice, as it breached the waves in the pools of his heart was…

“Yeah… I do” Miles said.

And Hobie knew that he was serious.

Hobie looked at him stunned for a moment. Like he was slowly starting to realize… that they were all on a chess board, and Miles wasn’t a piece… he was the guy in a chair on the other side of the board, playing against someone Hobie just couldn’t see.

So Hobie let his eyes fall shut, and breathed out a sigh… and instead of trying to destroy the Checker board, and ending the game… he decided, to let Miles play.

Hobie then opened his eyes and he wordlessly rose from the bed, walked away from Miles for a moment, and grabbed his guitar. He then slowly walked to the front of the room and slipped on the guitar strap over his back, as he tuned the instrument with his back to Miles… then began strumming a slow tune that Miles feels is familiar, but he’s never heard before.

Hobie then turned back around with his eyes closed slowly, and let the melody flow through him.. as he played his chords through a slower rendition of a song Gwen had played him once called, Absolute Territory…

(🎵)

…

…

“...Hobie?” Miles said.

“Shh mate, I’m thinking,” Hobie said in a whisper.

Hobie continued to strum the slow tune with an air of precision, rebellion, contemplation, and…

When the song ended, he swiveled around to face Miles, who had been waiting for him, and said,

“Okay, here’s the plan”.

Chapter Text

(🎵)

EARTH-928, Nueva York.

The Spider Society Headquarters.

12:10 pm.

“First, You are going to head to the west wing of HQ, and turn invisible out of range of the cams… then, head to the platform across from Quarantine and Research Lab A, where the Quantum Van, Pym Particle Discs, and the Ant-Man suit is”

In the west wing of an unpopulated area of Spider HQ, Miles walked down a pathway, subtly looking up at a cam… until he was just out of range, and then turned invisible.

He then got into a vertical climbing stance and stuck his hands and soles of his feet onto the surface of the perpendicular wall. Then he began his spider climb onwards to the Quarantine and Research Lab. Once it was in view across from him, he eyed the three guards posted outside of the metal doors with the keypad. A Peter variant, another Peter Variant, and Ben Reilly… who had his arms crossed, looking bored. The metal doors then shifted open, as people in glasses and lab coats filed out of the lab for lunch. Miles squinted from where he was and took a glance inside… at the position of the van, the Ant-Man suit, the terminal, the cams, and the ceiling… before the doors slid shut once again.

“This week they only have a guard rotation of six spiders, and all of the lab crew will go to lunch earlier than usual. While five are relatively strong, Ben is the strongest in the rotation this week. As loyal as the Scarlet bugger is, he’s the perfect man to respond to a distraction”

“This is so boring, no one’s crazy enough to hack in just to steal a retired guy’s suit. I don’t know why ‘Dad’ wants us watching this stuff, but no one’s jumping into that weird van either” Ben said to the spider next to him. The other Spider-Man gave him a flat look.

“It’s a van that creates a tunnel into the Quantum Realm, and while no one is likely to break in just to become Ant-Man for a day, we still have a job to do” he said.

“Ughhh, you’re right… I hope he gives us a raise” Ben said.

“You volunteered, and we’re not getting paid,” He said.

The other spider on their left chuckled.

“Once you are in position, I’m going to cause a major distraction in the food court, that no one will be able to ignore, and they will need backup for”

Hobie strolled into HQ with an easy smile on his face. With his guitar on his back, he pulled along one of his larger amplifiers on wheels… like a suitcase.

He continued down the pathway towards the food court, passing by the unsuspecting spiders who looked at him, then nodded to him and waved... like it was just another Saturday afternoon. Once he reached the food court, he stopped in the center of it and scanned the area around him. Kaine Parker. Malala Windsor. Charlotte Webber. Anya Corazón. Spider-Samurai. And Pter Parker... Spider-Rex.

‘Peach’.

“What are you going to do?”

Hobie then smiled and faced his amplifier towards the large Tyrannosaurus Rex, and connected his amplifier cord to the box and the guitar… before he activated it, and got the predator’s attention with a nod.

“Leave that part to me”

And when Pter Parker stopped chewing on the Ankylosaurus leg mid-bite to squint down at Hobie, Hobie raised his hand with his guitar pick in the air, and chose then to unleash his unbridled anarchy.

STRUMMMMMM!!!!!

The Strong chord filled the air so hard and fast, that the air itself felt like it vibrated, and the ears of everyone in proximity felt like they had been punched with it.

As everyone groaned and covered their ears, Hobie continued to jam the tune as he walked closer and closer to the T-Rex who couldn’t cover his ears, until it dropped its meal on the floor.

Then every spider in the area’s spider-sense went off, as the T-Rex got into a hunting position, with only one target in its gaze.

ROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!

“Once you hear the chaos roar, three of the guards will leave to stop it. Leaving Ben and two others behind. He might stay, but knowing him… since he can’t resist the chance to prove himself to Miguel… he will rush out ahead of the three guards to save the day. Leaving only two of them.”

‘CODE YELLOW, CODE YELLOW : Spider-Rex has begun rampaging in the western sector food court. All available units come to the food court to converge and detain. Units at high-security areas, leave half of your units at post.’ The HQ intercoms sounded around the building.

“That sounds like trouble! Don’t worry I’ll be back, I’m gonna go catch it!” Ben yelled before he took off and ran.

“Wait! Ughhh” the left Spider-Man groaned as Ben and two more spider guards swung away out of sight.

The guard that was left behind then leaned partially inside the now open metal door and said, “I’m the only one that knows how to calm Pter down without getting eaten, so I have to go. Stay at your post and be on the lookout, I’ll be right back” The Spider-Man said before he also swang away to join the frenzy.

The laboratory doors were still open.

And there were two guards left inside.

‘Perfect’.

“Once you see an opening, sneak into the lab and take out the other two guards, stealthily. Then swipe the Pym Particle discs. Grab the suit, and activate two discs to turn yourself and the suit smaller. Once you do, get into the suit. Make your way to the terminal connected to the Van, and type in the code you have into the command prompt that shows up. And when the portal to the van opens, dive in, and get him out”.

When the doors began sliding shut, Miles stealthily launched an invisible web right above it, then he flew forward and performed a Miles’ Special air trick into a Butterfly, with an acrobatic precision that would make Ganke’s game controller proud, and make Gwen jealous.

Once he landed swiftly above the door, he grabbed onto the metal frame over it, and swiftly front-flipped into the lab.

The door slid shut, and the metal echoed.

“Are you sure this is going to work?”

Miles stuck on the wall above and climbed quietly to the ceiling, and marked the position of the two guards, the cams, Pym Particle Discs on the table, activated Ant-Man suit, the terminal, and the Quantum Van.

He then crawled to a point on the ceiling above the first Spider-Man guard, the moment the second one was turned away.

“Only one way to find out”

Like a spy, Miles descended down a web from his ceiling hang, then performed a stealth takedown of Spider-Man number one, before he turned around. Miles then cocooned him in webs in a rapid spin, then tethered him to another hanging web, until he pulled him all the way up to the ceiling.

By the time Spider-Man number two’s spider-sense had gone off and he tried to look around the lab for his partner… when he felt the blow and his world went black, he knew it was already too late.

Miles finished securing both Spider-Men to the ceiling, then gracefully descended down a web, until his feet met the ground. The cameras hadn’t alerted anyone yet, despite the commotion but Miles knew he had to act fast.

Still invisible, Miles quickly walked over to the lab table and spotted the blue glow of the Pym particle discs. Then he inspected one in his hand before he grabbed a second one and pocketed the rest in the ‘Hammerspace’ of his suit.

He then rushed over to the platform where the Ant-Man suit was and pulled it off the stand and into his arms. He then swiveled behind a wall, out of view of the cams. He then took a second to catch his breath as he slid and sat down behind the wall before he looked at the suit in his lap and the two Pym particle discs in his hand.

This is it, it was now or never.

“I hope this works,” Miles said.

He then activated both discs while holding one, and throwing the other onto the Ant-Man suit, as he squeezed his eyes shut.

When he sensed the world change around him, and he opened his eyes… he knew that his world just got a lot bigger.

It was a spectacle for a moment, being as small as the ants he’d see crossing the sidewalk on the way to P.E. class, but he was running out of time and it only lasted for so long. Miles took out the remaining particle discs and folded notes, and shoved them into the pockets of the Ant-Man suit. Then he hastily unzipped it and put one foot and the other into it. He put it on around his shoulders and slipped his arms into it, before he zipped it up and slipped the helmet on until his view was tinted red through red lenses, He then patted himself down to make sure it was on right and activated the suit with the click of a button.

The suit calibrated and ran diagnostics for a millisecond, before enhancing Miles’ view of his environment. If he ever met the guy who made this, and he wasn’t too mad, he’d ask him to make him a Spider-suit sometime.

Miles then directed his attention past the wall, to the terminal that connected to the Quantum Van.

His final goal.

‘Time to get you out, man’

Miles then ran along the ground, like he saw Scott do when he was gearing up for a large jump. If a normal man could jump that far, then Miles thought he could clear the distance whole in one go, without breaking a sweat.

Time to jump.

Miles put all of his power into his knees and jumped high... in an arc so fast he did backward flips in the air until he perfectly landed hard on his feet with a thud that would've impressed any Olympic gymnastic scorer. Once Miles was steady on his feet, he looked up above the mountain of keyboard keys in front of him, to the screen on the terminal above.

‘This is it, only one thing left to do’

Miles took out his folded notes with the Python code that Spot had written, then jumped up onto the keyboard. He then moved the mouse trackpad and opened the command prompt, then jumped to the keyboard to start typing. He really should just go back to his normal size and enter it in, but he got the hang of jumping from key to key… and before anyone caught wind of what he was doing, he was almost finished with the last line of code.

“MILESSS!!!”

Dios Mio.

That sounded like Miguel O’Hara running to the lab, and he was close.

Miles cursed to himself under his breath as he looked around. He had to think fast. He heard Miguel’s footfalls around the corner, and he wasn’t the only one coming.

He clicked the button on the Ant-Man suit to turn himself larger. Right when Miguel breached the entryway, and his eyes locked on Miles, Miles looked at the red defense button glowing on the terminal and slammed it down faster than his uncle did when they used to play Spades.

An alarm sounded, and right when Miguel was five feet away from subduing Miles, the crackle of an electromagnetic field barrier sounded, and Miguel slammed right into it. Its purple hue separated the two of them.

Deja vu.

Miguel grunted in frustration, and Miles caught his breath in a sigh as he quickly went back to typing the last line of the remaining code.

“MILES DROP THE SHIELD AND STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING!!!” Miguel yelled as he tried to claw through the barrier.

“Nah, you know I can’t do that,” Miles said, as he finished the last string of code without turning around.

Initializing Program: If You Mean It

Run Command with Coordinates and Security Settings provided?_

>Yes  No

Yes.

Click!

“Miles!” a girl’s voice sounded.

Miles looked slowly over his shoulder to find Gwen, Peter B., Jessica Drew, several Spider-people, and Miguel looking back at him with horror and varying levels of concern on their faces.

“Don’t do this Miles, you’re smarter than this... just think about this calmly for a second, if you do that and you jump in, we don’t know how to get you out” Jess said evenly.

“Yeah like she said, Miles please don’t do this to me,” Peter B. said worriedly.

Gwen suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and tried to get his attention, as Miguel yelled orders to Lyla.

“Miles please, I can’t. I can’t lose you too. Come back.” Gwen exclaimed.

Miles almost faltered, and Miguel seized upon it.

“Look at how much trouble you’re causing, look at who’s worried about you. This isn’t like you, Morales. What you’re doing is not only a threat to yourself, but possibly the entire multiverse!”. Miguel yelled, with a hint of underlying panic.

Miles closed his eyes, then took in a breath. He then opened his eyes as he took one step forward and looked at them.

“I know the man that’s in there… and I’m the only one that does. And even if you don’t remember who he is, or who he was… in the end he saved the entire multiverse to keep everyone safe. I thought he was gone forever, but he’s not. He’s just trapped-” Miles pointed to the Van that was operational, with its portal frame open and exposed. “-in there, and I’m going to get him out”. Miles said.

“You said it was The Spot… but The Spot in every universe is a villain. What if he turns on you, and betrays you instead?” Gwen pleads.

Miles shook his head.

“Nah, he’s not the type. But even if he does, we’ve fought before, so I can handle it” Miles smirks.

“ENOUGH OF THIS, LYLA SHUT DOWN THE FIELD BARRIER AND SHUT DOWN THE TERMINAL” Miguel ordered, his patience running out.

“Soooo~ funny story about that… the field barrier and terminal are now set to manual only, so whatever Miles entered into the terminal has locked me out. While I’m trying to get past the program’s firewalls, I can’t do anything… and the Quantum Van is running on its own now.

“If you can’t access the terminal, then how the Shock did Miles do it!?” Miguel said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

‘They can’t get in’ Miles thought.

He then turned away from them as he did a quick once-over of the Ant-Man suit before he stepped back to the terminal’s screen.

“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING!” Miguel yelled as he tried to claw through the barrier again, to no avail.

“I do… and even if the world doesn’t remember him, I do,” Miles said.

“There’s not even supposed to be a ‘Spot’ in your universe!” Miguel exclaimed.

“Yes, there is!” Miles yelled as he whipped around to face them, surprising himself and the others with his volume.

The air went silent for a beat.

He then sighed as he turned around to face Miguel, Peter B., Jessica Drew, Gwen… and the rest of the room.

“Look… being Spider-Man is never easy. And sometimes I question if the choices I make, are the right ones. I don’t know if that makes me a hero, or a villain, or if that just makes me human… but someone once said to me… that even if I can’t always save everyone, I should still try.”

Initialization Complete.

Program Loaded 100%

“He’s part of the reason I’m Spider-Man, and why I get to choose to be, every day. And now that he needs me because he’s out of choices… then what I choose, is to save him”.

Portal Sequence Initiated.

Are you ready?

>PRESS ENTER_

‘Yeah… I am.’

ENTER.

As if in slow-motion, Miles pressed the enter key on the terminal… and from the back of a van, a glowing tunnel to the Quantum Realm appeared. As shouts sounded behind him from behind the field barrier, yelling at him to stop, Miles rolled his shoulders and got into a running stance.

He then took off and ran until he reached the opening of the swirling white portal, and once he was there he dived in.

“WOAAAHHHH!!!!”

Miles yelled as he sped through the Quantum Tunnel like a speeding bullet, as he felt his atoms buzz, and his heart race as the world around him spun, and then kalideoscoped into fractals and shapes he never knew existed, or that his mind could barely comprehend. He felt like he was on a roller coaster speeding fast through time and space, or like he was manning a speeding airplane just to test the limits of how many G-forces his body could take before it landed.

And when he arrived at the end of the tunnel and propelled out of it like a cannon, his vision swayed.

And then everything went black.

Chapter Text

When Miles slowly opened his eyes, he registered that the prismatic darkness around him that coalesced like night… was not of his world or his world’s sky.

He blinked wearily as he came out of the remnants of a headache, as he stretched his limbs and looked all around him. Floating like an astronaut in the middle of space, with his only friends being his breath in the mask, and the silence all around him… Miles realized that he was alone.

How long has he been out? Does time even move linearly here? It’s not like he could answer to the science behind that.

He then patted the compartments where his pockets were, and felt the subtle clank of the Pym Particle discs in them, before he sighed in relief and looked forward.

So… where was Spot?

“If someone got lost in the abyss of the quantum realm, if we tried to locate them we wouldn’t be able to pin down an exact location... only a few possibilities of where they could show up”

Miles remembered the words Lyla said, that echoed in his mind louder than the silence of the abyss around him… but Spot’s code had coordinates in them, so he had to be here… right?

‘Shoot’ Miles thought.

Well, there was nothing else to do,

all he could do was try to look.

Miles swam steadily forward as he floated throughout the space-like domain, with cosmic fractals moving calmly in the far distance… unbothered by the new inhabitant that entered its world.

“Spot! Are you there?! It’s me, I came to bring you back home! Are you here?” Miles shouted as he continued in another direction.

No response.

Miles was beginning to feel uneasy.

Still… if he made it this far, there was no way he was going to give up now.

“JONNNN! Are you there?! It’s me, Miles! Spider-Man! Your Nemesis! ...As cool as this place is, we should really head back home now!”

A few minutes passed by, and still… nothing.

Miles didn’t know how long he had drifted, and even when he backtracked towards his original spot so he wouldn’t get too far away from where he began… still there was nothing.

What a lonely place.

“Look man… I don’t know if this is some sick joke or not, or you actually aren’t here… or you never were in the first place but…” Miles started as he bit his lip.

“I want you back… so please. Let me take you home.” Miles said, with all honesty.

And for a moment, Miles fought against the silence… and almost accepted it…

Until,

“...Miles?” a perplexed man’s voice sounded.

And slowly, Miles’ sullen face changed into surprise, as a feeling of excitement sent butterflies into his stomach, and hope rushing through his veins. Then he smiled to himself, as he turned around to face the source of the voice and saw…

A man. With long brown hair to his shoulders. Who wore business casual attire, with dalmatian print socks, and a white lab coat that swayed behind him. With simple frames of glasses upon his face, that accentuated the dark hazel brown eyes that looked back at Miles… like he was a dream turned real.

“Miles… is that really, you?” He asked.

It’s… Jon. Johnathon Ohnn.

His nemesis now human… The Spot.

Miles took a huge sigh of relief before he swam his way towards where he floated, and Jon met him there halfway.

“Yes… it’s me. Are you- are you my?” Miles asked as he looked up at him.

'Are you mine, from my world?'

Johnathon smiled down at him fondly, as if he knew him in another life… and said.

“Yes, I’m yours”.

And Miles let the words wash over him, as he smiled and calmed the heat spreading on his face before he looked away and nodded.

“Cool, cool. Uh, that’s good. That’s great!” Miles said as he looked back up at him again.

Jon laughed at him softly.

Then… he carefully reached out to Miles, until he held his small face in his hands and looked through his red lenses like he was an object of study. He then looked curiously up and down at the suit he was wearing, like a scientist checking over a prototype, until his eyes met Miles’ again.

“Nice suit, where’d you get this?” Jon teased with a smile.

“It’s… a long story,” Miles said as one of his eyebrows twitched.

Jon hummed in amusement as he let go of him easily, and they both floated across from each other.

Miles then reached out and lightly grabbed Jon’s wrist as he looked into his eyes with a determined but hopeful expression, and he said,

“Jon… we can go back right now. We can go home”.

Jon looked back down at him, like he wanted to say yes. Like he’d give anything to say yes, but…

He slipped his wrist out of Miles’ hold and turned away from him until only his back faced him.

Then he looked over his shoulder and asked,

“Do you really think, that’s a good idea?”

And before Miles got a chance to answer, a wave of dark matter swirled around him like ink, until it dissipated like atoms… and he was gone.

“C’mon man don’t be like that! You don’t need to be down here, you can go home” Miles said.

He then heard the distant sound of a metro train, behind him… and he turned around.

When he turned around, he realized he stood on solid ground, and he wore his Visions Academy uniform… at an empty metro station, as the train passed by. When he looked to his left, he saw a teenager with short brown hair and simple glasses. Wearing an 80’s graphic T-shirt, with his hands in his pockets. The teen then leaned back onto the wall behind him, as he looked at Miles… and they were the only ones there.

Then it clicks for Miles because he knows who this is.

“Jon, we can be here just like this in the real world. You don’t have to make a world up all on your own. You and me, we can go home together” Miles said.

Jon looked at him thoughtfully and then laughed, and even if his laugh was real… it tasted like melancholy.

Miles then heard a couple arguing, and when he looked, he saw their reflections pass by in the windows of the moving train. When he looked back over at Jon, he wasn’t looking at Miles anymore and shut out the noise with headphones in his ears. Headphones connected to a Sony Walkman with stickers of planets and stars on them.

Then when the train passed into silence, he took off his headphones and placed them around his neck.

Then he shrugged and looked at Miles, and said,

“Home? Who said I wanted to go home?”

Miles’ shoulders slouched slightly in understanding before he raised them back up. He then walked towards him until he was right in front of him, and said,

“Home doesn’t have to be a place. Home… is wherever you’re wanted” Miles said.

Jon then looked back at him in surprise, like he had solved an impossible science equation… like he had defied the very laws of time and space… and as if no one had ever said those words to him, before.

Jon then looked to the side, with a slightly shy smile on his face that began turning the faintest of pink behind olive skin, when he said,

“You’re amazing, you know that?”

Miles then put on a smile of understanding and irony. A look that only a fellow Spider-Man and teenager could give.

“Well man… I do try” Miles said.

And Jon looked back at him, and smiled… before he mouthed a ‘thanks’ before the illusion faded away…

Miles then floated again in the darkness, as he looked again around for Jon… wherever it was that he would show up next.

‘I’m getting through to him, soon enough he’ll come back with me…

And then after that… We’ll figure it out’

“██ ████ ████ ███ █████?”

“IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK?”

As Miles heard the words echo through his mind like sinister snake oil, and reverberate through the air… his spider-sense pounded into him like sonar, until he covered his ears. All at once an overwhelming sense of dread took over his senses until the realization hit him.

And when it did, Miles felt… like once again, he was in way over his head.

THE ABYSS

Miles forced himself to quell his Spider-sense and looked up at the swirling black mass of dark matter that climbed to an unimaginable height. Once the dark matter coalesced… melded…tore... and homogenized into one being that formed from an ink-like amalgamate, it began to take shape into a silhouette. Darker than the void of a black hole, with swirling white cosmic holes as blinding as stars.

And once it took form, it looked around the space around itself, like it was calculating… before its echo filled the air… and it slowly turned its face to look at him, like a horror movie.

And Miles knew as he looked up at the monster, that there was no other plan, and no easy escape this time…

Because in a quantum realm with no limits, this threat to the multiverse, was very real.

“Mierda,” Miles said.

"ARE YOU READY FOR ROUND TWO, SPIDER-MAN?"

Miles has faced a lot of challenges.

A lot.

From street-level villains to monsters, robots, aliens, and even other spiders.

But only once had he ever faced an enemy… with a terrifying power... that was an all-encompassing, apocalyptic threat.

And there was only one way... that he won.

So Miles reached deep inside, to the piece in his heart that was home.

And he tuned out all of the noise and let all of his emotions flow like a stream, with all of his fear…

And when he played one song on repeat in his mind as he took a breath,

And after an inhale and an exhale, he opened his eyes…

And went from Miles Morales...

To Spider-Man.

(🎵)

Sparks of lightning shined in Miles’ eyes as he stood tall and faced the monster in the dark…

And his show of opposition made the creature hum approvingly… and grin with predatory satisfaction.

The Abyss then waved a hand towards him, like he was nothing more than an insect on the ground... as he manifested a cosmic white orb in his palm, that was so large that Miles knew he’d have to give it everything to dodge.

So with footing that he didn’t have, Miles launched high into the air with the power in his suit… before the cosmic blast hit Miles’ territory, and if he had been a second too late, he would’ve turned to atoms.

Miles had to think fast. There were no buildings to hide behind, and no backup to distract him, and there was nothing left to web onto.

It was just mono a mono. A one versus one. Just him, and his monster.

As he narrowly ducked under an impossibly large hand that tried to swipe at him, He knew he didn’t have webs, but he could fly…

Yeah right right! he could fly, and he could shrink, and he could turn invisible, and he could…

He could grow.

Miles switched the modular on the Ant-Man suit to the opposite direction and waited for the suit to charge. Once The Abyss faced him again, with its hungry gaze fixated on him, like he was just prey… Miles stared down death in the eye,

and activated the suit.

In a flash, Miles grew ten stories tall and felt large in their realm... where time and space went on endlessly. And when he looked across the void to face the creature, he realized…

That he wasn’t big, and Miles wasn’t small.

Their playing field was even… because they were the same.

"THAT WON’T BE ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU"

Miles ignored the threat, as it echoed like waves in his mind

Then he got in a boxing stance like his uncle showed him,

and he made the first moves.

1-2-3   2-3-2   2-3-5-6

Boxing combos that landed like he was at home, or on Earth-42… when all that he knew, was just him and a punching bag.

When the creature stumbled back, and almost fell to the ground when it was caught off guard, Miles knew...

That even with all that cosmic power, Miles had the upper hand.

Abyss let out an inhuman roar that Miles braced the brunt of, and kept his footing in a groundless space, to stand tall.

When the monster rushed him, as it promised him pain... Miles readied his stance and he didn’t run away. When Abyss went for a strike at his chest that almost pierced like a dagger, Miles weaved and dodged around it, as he ducked around multiple arms and cosmic blasts, and he landed blow after blow and kept up with his pace.

And Miles dodged and weaved, a master of his footwork… as he blocked blow for blow while dishing it out doubly like he was trying to beat the final boss, in a game of Street Fighter.

And when Abyss in his rage, made a desperate move and he slipped, Miles weaved behind his giant form, until he caught the creature in a chokehold.

And when he held him tight, and didn’t let go… he unleashed 10,000 volts of unbridled fury as he let it all go and yelled,

“ARE YOU TIRED YET JON?!”

And the creature struggled against his hold until it screeched,

“THAT’S NOT MY NAME!!!”

And when Miles felt his gravity shift, until the monster threw him off with unimaginable strength, right over its head… Miles sped through the air while doing somersaults forever, And the last thing that he saw was Abyss charging up a blast.

Before he felt it all hit in an instant, with the force of a Supernova.

When Miles fell out of the sky, coughing and blinking wearily… he saw several alerts blaring on the lenses of his mask, that showed the halved percentages of the integrity of his suit. And when he tried to take in a breath, it felt like he fought for air at the top of the tallest peak of the highest mountain… as he struggled to get up, and stay awake to face his enemy.

WARNING: SUIT INTEGRITY AT 50%, OXYGEN RATIO AT DANGEROUS LEVELS IN THIS FORM. INITIALIZING FORCE SHUTDOWN OF GIANT MODE TO SWITCH TO REGULAR MODE TO REDUCE ENERGY CONSUMPTION.

And when Miles saw his enemy stalk towards him like the grim reaper, until he stood tall over Miles as he struggled… when his suit shrank back down to its normal size, he breathed in a large gulp of air that tasted like relief.

Then when the creature located him, and grabbed him out of the air… he held him up to his large unsettling face, while he watched as his new prey struggled in his large fist.

“ITS OVER NOW. AND YOU’VE LOST.”

“YOU CAN’T BEAT ME ON YOUR OWN, SO SUCCUMB.”

“IT WOULD BE SO EASY, FOR ME TO KILL YOU,

AND TAKE OVER THE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE,

“SO INSTEAD… I’LL TRAP YOU HERE ENDLESSLY WITH ME

AND YOU’LL BE MINE,”

“FOREVER”

“THAT’S WHAT IT MEANS, TO MAKE AND UNLEASH A MONSTER”

Is this the end?… no, it can’t be.

It won’t be.

If there wasn’t any hope left…

He wouldn’t be talking.

So if he wants to talk so badly,

Then let’s talk.

“You say that you’re a monster… yet you’re choosing to talk to me, instead. You won’t kill me, because I’m like you… and you want that, because you don’t want to be alone” Miles said, as he faced him.

He felt the fist around him tremble in small quakes, as an inhuman growl reverberated through the air.

“I know what it feels like, and you know that. You can read all my thoughts, run through my memories, and take over my mind. So you know, that I’m not lying. But every time you do that, and you see all of mine… I can see all of yours too”.

And this makes the monster, pause.

And Miles freed his hands out of his grip for a moment, and as he rested them on the surface of his voided fist, and he looked up at him.

“I see… the first time you saved enough money, to buy your first telescope. I see, the time you and Mysterio, skipped college classes to go have fun at the beach. I see the time, you mastered five coding languages and your crush smiled at you and called you a nerd… and I see when you graduated from college with your head held high, because you knew you wanted to change the world… and I see the pain you faced when it all changed, and everyone avoided you… and you spent an entire year, alone”.

The air around him seemed to tremble, as well as the fist he was trapped in… but Miles didn’t feel his spider-sense echo intensely, anymore.

“WHAT DOES ANY OF THAT MATTER NOW?!!!!”

“Because even if we are where we are now, and you were changed by what happened to you… that’s still you!… and despite everything, it’s always been you!” Miles yelled.

And just like the first time, when Miles defeated him by getting through to him… Abyss’ voided form began to crack like a shell, as glowing white cracks like glass began to litter all parts of his surface.

“You have it so easy. Because you became a hero… you think you can get me. But you don’t know what it feels like to claw on your knees for a shred of attention. What will you do, when I come back for you… and I remind you, that I’m never letting you go?”

Miles took a moment to school his remaining fear… at the threat that may one day come to fruition.

But then, he held his head up high with firm determination, and he said…

“You can’t have me or try to possess me… and if you try, I’ll never stop fighting,”

“But if you let me in, and let me take you home…”

“I won’t leave you behind, and you won’t be alone anymore.”

And with that final line from Miles’ lips, Abyss shut his eyes and sighed… and as the cracks took over his surface all the way to the fist that Miles was held in… he said,

“I’ll be back for you one day”.

And like shards of glass that shattered into cascading remnants of starlight,

In a flash, white sparks fell all around Miles like snow… and The Abyss was gone.

So Miles let himself fall, let himself float down, and let himself sink.

And like a comet that fell out of orbit… he closed his eyes and gave in to his need for sleep.

Before he succumbed to his slumber, as he fell endlessly…

And didn’t have the energy to care, where he’d wake up…

The last thing he remembered was the feeling of being caught… and held, in someone’s arms.

…

When Miles woke up, he no longer saw alerts on his mask… and when he lazily tested out his limbs, he knew he was still in the Ant-Man suit. He then shifted and blinked his eyes open wearily, as he caught his bearings. Then he snuggled into the pliant surface that he rested in.

It took another moment for his senses to catch up to him, and he ran his hands slowly up and down the solid surface… and when he registered in his mind that this wasn't a couch or a pillow, but someone real…

He looked up at who held him close… and all at once everything made sense.

Silent relief flooded Miles, and he laughed to himself.

Because, holding Miles in his arms, and in his lap, in a sitting position… while he looked down at him with worry, hope, and concern was, his one and only nemesis,

The Spot.

“Miles… I’m so sorry… Are you okay? ” he said as he checked him over.

Miles grinned as he mulled over the question.

“No, but I’ve been through worse” Miles said with a look, that only he could give.

Spot looked even more concerned at that, but compared to what he faced an hour ago… it only made Miles laugh.

Miles then shifted in Spot’s lap and looked up at him for a moment, like he was making sure that he was real… then he raised up a hand, until it rested on Spot’s cheek.

Spot looked down at him, concern morphing into surprise… but he didn’t pull away from the hand that was on his face. And when he looked down, past the red lenses of his mask… into the twinkling honey of Miles’ eyes… he let himself get captured in them… as he slowly brought his hand up to cover Miles’ wrist.

“Found you” Miles said.

And a million emotions flickered on Spot’s simple but expressive face until it settled into fondness and he said,

“...Yeah, you really did”.

“You know... I like games as much as the next guy, but I gotta say... This was the worst game of Hide and Seek I have ever played” Miles said seriously.

Then a beat of silence passed between them… before Miles started laughing.

And even though The Spot hated himself for it, once Miles started giggling at his own joke… he couldn’t help but join in, and laugh.

…

When Spot asked him what he went through on his journey here, and why he chose to come here against all odds instead, Miles told him. He told him that it was because Spot needed him, and he needed Spot, because they we’re in this together, as simple as that. Spot took in Miles’ words, and he let them settle on him until he accepted them into his own heart. And when he did, Miles held a hand out to him, and with a warmth in his eyes he said, one last time...,

“Let’s go home… my Nemesis”.

And Spot looked at him, and then took his hand and said,

“To wherever you are… my Spider-Man”.

And then Miles let go of his hand, as he fished two Pym Particle Discs out of his pocket. Then he placed one into his regulator belt and closed its hatch, and gave the other one to Spot as he placed it in his large hands. When Spot held it up in one hand, with a secure grip on it… Miles reached out to grab Spot’s arm suddenly until he was pulled forward, and Miles’ face was all Spot could see.

And Miles looked dead in his eyes, with the threat of a man from a teenager when he said,

“We are both going back, so don’t flake on me. If you do… or if you ever threaten the entire multiverse again… Then I’ll tear through time and space to find you… and I’ll make sure you regret it.”

And Spot looked down at him, as a sharp breath escaped his lips… at the threat that was both a salvation and a damnation in its dichotomy. And Spot didn’t know whether the fire in Miles’ eyes promised to warm him, or engulf him in all of its flames… but the darker part of him that was locked away deep down below the surface laughed in his approval…

And the man that was as human as he was a mutant… resigned and accepted it, as he let himself walk forward into the flames.

And Miles let him walk through, as he felt every choice they both made flow through him. As each step added another red string, to their quantum entanglement called destiny…

And when Spot nodded at him and he prepared himself, Miles knew then that he wasn’t going to run.

“On three, we click these, and we go home,” Miles said.

“One”

“...Two” Spot said.

“...Three”.

And when a click was heard, everything faded to white.

Chapter Text

(🎵)

When The Spot and Miles Morales launched out of the blinding Quantum Tunnel, swirling out of the back of the modified brown 1972 Ford Econoline van...

They fell and tumbled around and around, wrapped up in each other in a mess of limbs, until they landed on the floor of Miguel’s lab.

And when they groaned and looked at each other, then at the crowd of spiders in the lab… slowly everyone in the room turned and looked at them.

Then they looked at The Spot with a curious look which morphed into horror…

And it was right then, that they both knew…

That everyone remembered his existence, all at once.

Jess looked at them with surprise, then looked at Hobie. Hobie shrugged at her and looked at Gwen. Gwen looked bewildered at him, then looked at Peter B. for help. And Peter B waved his hands around like he didn’t know what to do, then he looked at Miguel.

And Miguel… looked like a burning man.

The leader of the Spider Society, then bared his fangs, unsheathed his claws… and calmly gave one order into his watch, connected to the intercomms.

“CODE RED: WEST QUARANTINE AND RESEARCH LAB. ALL UNITS, CAPTURE AND DETAIN THE SPOT AND MILES MORALES 1610B, SPIDER-MAN.”

Spot and Miles then stood up slowly, and as Miles got into a readying stance… Spot waved at the entire group and said,

“Uhh… meow?” with a sheepish smile.

And in a flash, a rush of futuristic red and dark blue launched towards them like a bullet.

“MOVE!” Miles yelled as he shoved Spot out of the way, and they both narrowly dodged the attack.

Miguel then recovered and launched his red laser Smart Webs from his wrist, which Miles jumped over, and Spot portaled a half-step away from.

Miles and Spot then looked at each other as more spiders began to circle them, and Miles looked towards the open metal doors behind the crowd and pointed there as he exclaimed,

“Get us out of here!”

And when Kaine Parker decided he would be the next to try to rush them, Spot grabbed Miles and they jumped through a dark-mattered portal and landed on the other side.

They then looked around their surroundings for a brief moment, in a different part of HQ… as they noticed even more spiders noticed the pair too. Every spider’s mask lenses then widened and they began to point towards them and yell before they started giving chase.

“LET’S GOOO!!” Miles yelled.

He then grabbed Spot’s hand, and like Miles had done in this place before…

Chased by every spider in the area that could recognize the two anomalies,

They ran.

At every corner of HQ, they were pursued by men, women, cars, Legos, cats, and animals as they ducked, evaded, webbed, weaved, portaled, jumped, and fought their way throughout their shared run.

Miles kept up the pace the entire time and Spot kept up with him in a way he hadn’t run since he was in college.

When Miles led them to an upcoming area that he had marked as a blind spot from the cameras, and secluded from most spider-people. He unzipped his Ant-Man glove, webbed up to the platform, and grabbed Spot by the waist, as they swung away through the air like Miles was Superman.

When the two landed on the ground and got their footing, Miles forced Spot behind a wall and hid them both, as they caught their breath for a moment. Miles then typed the coordinates for another dimension on his watch, but it blared an error message with the word DISABLED, and Miles groaned.

He then looked up at Spot and said,

“You need to get us out of here, somewhere else”.

“But I haven’t been part of this web of interdimensional frameworks for a while, I don’t know where we’ll wind up,” Spot said.

“I don’t care, we’re out of time! Just take us anywhere!”

“There you are! STAND DOWN!” Miguel shouted as he came into view.

“GO!” Miles yelled.

So Spot grabbed Miles’ waist and jumped backward into a dark-mattered portal, that took them to another dimension.

EARTH-199999.

Avengers Tower. 2025.

The Spot and Spider-Man launched out of a swirling portal and ran down a hall that was unfamiliar to them, lined with a few pictures of different heroes. They kept running, as they looked over their shoulders at the closing dark portal, and then back in front of them.

A short, blond-haired woman singing in Russian walked around the corner into the hall. And the two nearly crashed right into her.

“Sorry!” Miles said as she looked back at them like she had just seen aliens.

The duo then ran out of the hall until they reached what they realized... was an open area between a kitchen, a living room, and an expensive bar area, and stopped.

A blond man with the build of a soldier looked at them from the kitchen, and a guy reading a book on the sofa gaped at them, while a guy with brown hair and a metal arm mixed up a drink at the bar unfazed.

They all looked at each other awkwardly.

“What the hell? Is that an alien? And a kid?” the blond one asked.

“Wait… is that the Ant-Man suit? How did you get that?” the metal-armed man asked.

A commotion was then heard down the hall, as a man began asking the blond woman if she had seen anyone suspicious pass through her dimension.

Spot and Miles then looked at each other, and back down the hall, as Miguel O’Hara and seven other spiders began to turn the corner from the hall.

“Well this has been fun! I swear I’ll return the suit later byeee !!!” Miles yelled as he began running while gripping Spot’s hand.

Spot then manifested another portal in record time, and the two jumped through before Miguel’s hand almost caught Spot’s ankle.

EARTH-10005.

Deadpool’s Apartment. 2024.

An anti-hero in a red and black combat suit, with adamantium katanas, flipped through different channels on the TV as he sat in the living room.

“This is soooo boring, I’ve watched bootlegs of all the subscription-sucking Marvel shows and movies already… and as much as I love seeing reruns of Captain America’s ass, isn’t there anything good?”.

And suddenly from right above him, a portal manifested on his ceiling, and he felt two heavy bodies crash into him.

All three of them groaned as they tumbled onto the ground.

When the anti-hero got up into a stand and looked at his uninvited guests, he saw a guy with the worst case of Dalmatian-patterned skin he had ever seen, and a kid wearing stolen Avengers tech that would sell for a pretty penny on Craigslist.

“Get up Bonnie and Clyde. If you want to steal Avengers tech, then you shouldn't have landed in the home of one”.

“What?” Spot said with confusion.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about man, but we’re not here to fight, we’re being chased, ” Miles said as the two stood up and Miles looked around him for an exit.

“I bet you are. What are you two supposed to be anyway?… Wait- Is this an ET situation or The Shape of Water?”.

It was at that moment that all three of them heard a second portal open, outside of the apartment.

Miles, Spot, and the anti-hero then lined up to look through the window through the blinds, to see none other than Spider-Man 2099 himself, Miguel O’Hara.

“Woww the animators have outdone themselves, now that is what I call cake,” Katana-man said.

“Look I don’t know you, and you don’t know us… but we really need to get out of here without being caught. I’m not asking you to stall, but if he asks if you’ve seen us… can you not rat us out?” Miles pleaded.

“Hmm… you know what kid, for making my day interesting, you’ve got yourself a deal,” he said as he shook Miles’ hand.

“Cool cool…” He then saw the look on Deadpool’s mischievous expression, and he couldn’t help but ask “...What are you going to do?”

“I’m gonna... distract him, trust me kid, I’m a master of persuasion” Deadpool said in a not-so-innocent tone.

‘He’s gonna flirt with him isn’t he?’ Miles thought.

“Aight cool, have fun with that, and thank you,” Miles said as he saluted him before he left with Spot through a portal.

“Bye, see you in the comics” he waved away.

EARTH-10005.

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. 20XX.

Miles and Spot landed in the flower bushes, a few feet outside of a tall mansion that looked like it was being used as an academy. Spot was the first to get up, and shook himself off before he picked Miles up and set him down out of the bushes.

When they looked around, they realized the students coming in and out of the mansion weren’t average ones, and some were even showing off their powers and abilities outside.

“Where are we now?” Miles asked curiously.

“I have no idea, but at least we don’t stand out,” Spot said.

“That’s very true,” The voice of a woman said.

The two turned around to face the voice, and they saw a woman with orange hair wearing a green hero suit.

“Hello, my name is Jean… and you both look tired, after hopping through the multiverse,” She said with a knowing look.

“How… do you know that?” Miles asked warily.

With a smile, Jean tapped her forehead in a gesture that Spot recognized, and Miles understood.

‘Mind reading stuff again’ Miles thought.

“Yep, mind reading stuff,” Jean said.

Miles’ spider-sense didn’t go off, and she hadn’t tried to capture them… so maybe for the moment, they could trust her.

“You know that he’s coming here then, don’t you?” Miles asked her, as he rolled with it.

“Yeah, I do… we can hold him off for you for a day, and give you both a warm meal and a place to rest. But after that… Jon and Miles, you still have others back home waiting for you… so you have to go home” Jean said with an understanding look.

Spot and Miles both looked at each other, thoughtfully for a moment, and with a nod they both said...

“Deal”.

When Miguel O’Hara showed up, sniffling around the campus of the school, Jean Grey and Charles Xavier talked to him… and Miguel took his men and left. Whatever words were exchanged between them, they were very convincing.

During a warm meal at the cafeteria, Spot and Miles sat together while talking to the other mutants. Spot talked about dark matter and renewable energy sources with a blue-furred scientist named Hank McCoy, and Miles talked about his adventures as Spider-Man, with a teenager named Ellie Phimister.

When the two finished their meals, and we’re given pajamas and told to take any room in the guest room wing of the mansion… Miles and Spot went their separate ways to get dressed and settle in for the night.

…

After Miles tried to go to sleep, but tossed and turned in the night. He gave up and then left his room to walk down the hall and tire himself out.

He let the socks of his feet shuffle along the ornate rug and wooden floors of the mansion… as he walked forward like a zombie in a white T-shirt and black shorts. He didn’t know how long he had been doing that, but it was long enough for someone to notice, as he heard a door unlock slowly until it opened.

And out of the doorframe peeked… The Spot.

“Miles?” he whispered.

And Miles looked over at him.

“Yeah.”

“...Can’t sleep?” Spot whispered.

“...Nah,” Miles said tiredly.

Spot, who wore a black T-shirt and striped black and red sweatpants, opened his door all the way until Miles saw two beds in his suite. Spot then said,

“I don’t know how much I can help, after everything. But if you want to, my door’s always open”.

Miles looked at him for a moment, then at the second bed in the room and said,

“Okay… hang on”.

Miles then retrieved his Spider-suit, and the Ant-Man suit from the other room, before he knocked on Spot’s door, and he let him in. Miles then rested the suits on the far desk in the room, before he turned back to Spot. Spot who laid in the left bed, and turned off the light, while the bed on the right was empty.

Miles didn’t understand himself, and he was too tired to think too hard about why… but,

When he walked between the two beds and shuffled under the covers of the left one… He felt like that choice was easy.

When he felt Spot freeze as he faced away from him until he slowly relaxed... Miles looked at his back... and reached out to him until he wrapped an arm around his waist. After a moment where Miles didn’t know if Spot was asleep or not, he let his eyes drift shut... but he still, couldn’t get any sleep.

He felt the bed beside him shift slowly, until he felt the body in his arms turn to face him… and then tentatively, he felt Spot’s arms pull Miles in to lay on his chest. And then Spot’s arms found their home, wrapped around Miles’ back.

And Miles exhaled a sigh of relief, like that was what he was missing, as Spot knocked softly on the door on the edge of Miles’ mind, and Miles let him in.

Spot projected the sounds of calm music, the fond and happy memories Miles had, and all the serene places he would take him to, to get a breath of fresh air. And as Miles let the calm take him, as Spot drove away all of his troubled thoughts and nightmares… and replaced them with dreams, Miles told him,

‘I drew you a lot… almost every day’

And when Spot held him closer, as he drifted away too… he thought,

‘When we get back home, you’ll have to show me’

And it was like this, that the one and only pair of anomalies from their world… fell asleep, and drifted away to their dreams.

…

The next day, Miles and Spot ate a warm breakfast, and thanked Jean and Professor Xavier for their hospitality… and whatever awaited them from today on, Miles and Spot were going to face it.

When Miles and Spot arrived on Earth-1610B, with the Ant-Man suit in tow… Miguel was waiting for them, and the two were arrested the same day.

There was a lot of internal debate among the Spider-society members about what to do with Spot, or with Miles, or even with Miguel still as their leader… since the multiverse was still intact, and the very construct of ‘Canon Events’ had been disproved by the two anomalies in an orange cage. One with an anklet, and the other with a bracelet... that dampened their powers.

Spot had accepted his fate and didn’t fight, but Miles had tried to break out several times.

And Miguel, Jess, and Peter B. had more dissension and opposition in the society… than they presently knew how to deal with. So for the time being, they shifted roles. Jessica Drew, who was second in command took on more of a leadership role and divided up responsibilities. Lyla kept security running, and missions going and logged in feedback, polls, and suggestions for what the populace as a whole wanted to happen within the society from here. Peter B. took on more of a support role, as he did the paperwork, and tried to amend major conflicts and grievances between groups with conflict-resolution meetings and sessions. He also scheduled mental health and support group meetings. Miguel, to the rest of the Spider Society, seemed to take a back seat… but the truth is, he was still working hard, if not harder than ever to make things better from here, not for himself, but for everyone. So even though he was forced to take more breaks than his busy schedule used to allow… he did a little bit of everything, fixed what he could, and listened to others about how to make it better.

Hobie didn’t like the fact that Miles and Spot were still trapped, despite not being actual threats… and several times he attempted to break them out with a few friends. Lyla saw through each attempt with amusement, and even applauded his ingenuity… and at one point, Lyla even shut down the cages and, let it happen.

That day Spot chose to stay where he was, and Miles argued with him… Hobie said, ‘If he wants to be incarcerated and rot in a capitalistic prison meant to punish instead of rehabilitate it’s populace, because of guilt that is being weaponized against him. Then that is his choice’.

In the next three minutes, Hobie escaped, and Miles and Spot were imprisoned again.

Jess reviewed the footage of this happening on her 2099 work tablet, and she sighed next to Lyla.

“I can’t just let Spot out, Miles sure I could… but he just keeps going in and trying to bring that man with him. He’s being naive” Jess said as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

“You were like that once… and despite everything, with that dampener on… Spot’s probability of becoming a multiversal-level threat is only .9 percent” Lyla said.

“You know what he’s done… I’m responsible for everyone, that’s not just a decision I can make on my own” Jess said.

“Then don’t make it alone… but if you do, well. You’re the boss now” Lyla said.

Jess thought about that… then leaned back in her chair, and let out an exasperated groan.

…

Spot usually passed the time by naming off quantum theories, and he taught Miles about Physics principles that he might learn in college. When Miles couldn’t fully hear him from his own cage, or didn’t get it, Spot would project it in the form of a powerpoint presentation in his mind. Spot also told him, that if he really wanted to, he could escape from his pod… even with the dampener on.

Miles just wanted Spot to come back home with him, and Spot just wanted to break Miles out so Miles could take himself home. Miles couldn’t understand it. Spot said that even if he gave the world a clean slate, he was still responsible for his actions. It had already been three days, and even though Miles called and texted his parents and Ganke without all the details yet... knew he needed to go home, one way or another.

He sighed and leaned his head on the orange glass.

And when both of their cages dissipated, and Miles tumbled forward awkwardly onto the floor.

Miles looked around and half expected to see Hobie, so he was surprised when he looked up and saw Jess staring down at him, instead.

“C’mon, both of you. We’re all going to talk” Jess said.

When Miles and Spot followed Jess, surrounded by some of the strongest spider-people for security… what they didn’t expect to see was a seating area in the middle of a pit, with a round table surrounding it that felt like a modified courtroom. Once the two sat down in the middle, and Jess sat at the front of the roundtable… Miguel, Peter B., and several other Spiders they never met before filed into each seat. And Miles and Spot looked at each other as if they had the same thought in their minds.

To hold the two here? Or release them? That was the question. But Miles sighed as he knew… that they would have to plead their case, and this was going to be a long day.

…

13 members voted, and the majority ruled by one vote.

“Verdict. Miles Morales is to be sent home to his family on Earth-1610B, where he will continue to carry out his schooling and his identity as Spider-Man. His watch will be heavily monitored and on probation, he will only go on missions with senior supervision. The Spot, Dr. Johnathon Ohnn is to spend half of his time at Spider HQ under parole, as he works for the Spider Society under Miguel O’Hara and Jessica Drew. For the other half, under surveillance and with a power dampener on his ankle, he may traverse back to Earth-1610B. And 1610B only. Favorable compliance to all terms over time may reduce the terms of this sentencing… but failure to comply to these terms will result in… well I’m sure you can imagine” Jess said, as she flattened the paperwork on her side of the table.

“Do you both understand these terms and agree to uphold them?” Jess said easily, as she looked at the two of them.

“Yes” Miles and Spot said, at the same time.

“You have my word” Spot added.

Jess looked at him, then at Miles for a beat, before she rose out of her chair in a stand and said,

“We’ll see… Meeting adjourned”.

…

(🎵)

When Miles got back to his dimension, and breathed in the sweet industrial air of his city. The first thing he looked at was the cityscape below, and the second thing he looked up at was the sky. Then again he breathed in and breathed out, as he finally felt in his gut, that even if everything wasn’t perfect… it was finally as it should be.

When he arrived at the door of his parent’s place and fished out his keys to unlock the door… when he walked into the living room, he met his parent’s eyes. The three of them rushed toward each other and held each other tight, as his parents showered him with all of their concern, worry, questions, fondness… and most of all, their love.

And Miles little by little told them everything, so he didn’t overwhelm them, but once he did… he was glad to finally get it off his chest. And when he once again held Billie in his arms, half expecting her to be mad at him for putting himself in danger… all she did was laugh in his arms.

Catching up on three days of missed homework wasn’t so bad, especially when you had a roommate that called in sick for you to cover for you. When Miles texted Ganke that he was home, and arrived the next day… when Miles went for their usual dap up, Ganke chose to hug him instead. Miles chuckled and he hugged him back.

The Spot spent the latter half of last year trying to plan out his revenge on Spider-Man, so Spot would never get over the irony of waking up one day, to walk through the Headquarters of the entire Spider Society, and help them improve upon their jobs at being Spider-Man. It took some time, and Spot hadn’t been in front of a computer to analyze data, make blueprints, engineer mechanics, and code in a long while… but still, he did his best to contribute what he was best at.

The tension between him and his new colleagues in masks was an adjustment period… but little by little, even that began to change.

…

Going home to a world you once destroyed and then put back together is a heavy feeling. But still, Spot stood tall… and decided to be a part of it.

When he went to his old apartment, he found it mostly destroyed from the first time he made a mini collider. Somehow when he rewrote the world… he didn’t fix this. When he picked up the mail on the floor, he saw his overdue utility bills, and warnings that he might be evicted soon… so he patched up what he could of the walls… then went to see an old friend.

When he knocked on the door of Mysterio’s apartment and waited nervously for it to open. He heard the laughing and flirting of a man on a cellphone before the door opened.

“Nah it’s just the Pizza guy, this will only take a second-” Quentin said into his cell phone before he looked up and paused.

And when the two looked at each other, recognition and silence hung in the air.

“Hey Q... It’s been a while... It’s me... Jon” Spot said.

And then Quentin raised the phone to his ear and said “Felicia, I’m gonna have to call you back”.

…

Rooming with his old college roommate, at first was an adjustment. But after a while, they fell into a routine again just like old times. Q promised to help him get on his feet because he’s been there, and in return Spot helped him around the apartment, and only occasionally with some of the tech for his schemes.

Spot eventually landed a stable job, doing secret things for a secret organization, that’s highly classified, but now he felt the joy again of making money. Spot is also going to therapy, and even joined a mutant support group with others who were like him… and now he feels more confident about his changes, and his body, now that he feels like he’s not the only one.

Spot also still stopped by The Bar With No Name, to chat it up with Delilah, Rhino, and Electro. And even if many people still fear him, and strangely other villains have begun to idolize him, like a symbol…

Spot knew… that things were looking up.

And for the first time since the collider explosion a year ago,

He feels… Better.

…

Miles and Spot aren’t enemies… but they are each other’s nemesis.

And if anyone asked them what they were to each other… that’s what they would tell them.

When Miles foils one of the schemes that Spot is wrapped up in, Spot makes him a better hero by pushing him to his limits. And when Spot slips backward into isolation out of fear that he’s truly a monster… Miles pulled him out of the void, and into the light with a vengeance.

And when the two spar to kill time out of boredom, or out of practice, and then hang out together afterward…

They go blow for blow with quips that aren’t flirts...

And go on outings that definitely aren’t dates…definitely...

And on a day when Spot has brought the Morales’ an apology cake in their favorite flavor…

After hours of talking, when the Spot leaves out of the front door…

He secretly portals up to Miles’ rooftop, under the stars where his nemesis is waiting for him.

And he sits down next to him like he knows this is where he’s meant to be.

“So… what stars are up there today?” Miles asked him.

“Hmm… let’s see.” Spot said as he looked up, then raised his hand and pointed.

“That one is Virgo, and that one over there is Leo… but right over there is my favorite one, named Orion”.

“Oh really, that looks cool,” Miles said.

“What about you? What’s your favorite star?” Spot said as he lowered his hand, and then turned to him with a soft smile.

Between them, their hands were only an inch away.

And when Miles didn’t look up, and only looked at Spot for a moment as the air changed between them…

Miles looked into Spot’s gaze like he was the one he wanted.

And Spot looked into Miles’ eyes like that’s where he wanted to be.

And even though the heat spreading on his face, threatened to throw Miles off balance… he leaned in close and dared to do what he wanted, anyway.

And when he placed his hand over Spot’s and traced his ivory hand with his thumb,

Miles continued to look at him, as he saw a faint blush paint the canvas of his ivory face.

And when Spot didn’t pull away from him… Miles slowly interlocked their fingers, and said…

“You”

And when Spot heard Miles’ confession slip from his lips, Miles smiled back at him… and he looked at him.

Spot took a moment, as he let that simple word fall on him like stars, until it filled up every inch of him, and glowed like a star in the center of his universe.

And when he let himself be pulled into the spin of Miles’ orbit… he looked into his brown eyes like they were all he wanted … And when he was a breath away… he squeezed the hand intertwined in his, and he said…

“Miles…”

“Yeah…”

“I love you”.

And when Miles smiled affectionately he said…

“...Prove it”

And when Spot placed his other large hand behind the back of Miles’ neck, and pulled him forward, Miles knew that he did when his dark lips met his.

And when they kissed over and over, until they felt drunk on it… when they came up to breathe air, Miles said…

“I love you, too”.