The front door creaked open just a little and—there was no way to be coy about it—a woman entered. She paused at the entrance. Her eyes moved carefully across the first floor, scanning every inch of the space. The lights were still on, humming faintly above the mess of cables and machinery.
"…Hello?" she called out, cautiously.
No one replied. It was hard to tell whether she was relieved or not.
She stepped further in in shiny black boots. It was not meant for combat. Her gaze flicked from one corner to another. The living room looked just as wrong as ever from the couch made of cables to the diagnostic screen pretending to be a television.
Her eyes lingered on the red carpet for a second.
"Nothing downstairs…" she murmured under her breath.
Her attention shifted toward the staircase.
If the first floor was the teleportation pad…
Then what was the second floor for?
She walked up the stairs, trying to be quiet and failing. The sound echoed more than it should have in such a confined space. The entire house felt hollow.
She reached the top and gulped.
If the first floor was the teleportation pad, then the second floor was a laboratory. Wall to wall, it was filled with more cables and machinery than the floor below. Thick bundles of wires ran along the ceiling and down the walls, feeding into a towering stack of computers on one side.
But the other side? Two huge capsules. The most suspicious and lab-adjacent objects possible. There was no question about it. This was a floor built to be a laboratory.
The woman stepped forward slowly, her eyes narrowing as she took it all in. She had good…no, great instincts. She got chills and she looked up.
At the corner of the ceiling was a huge spider. No, a man-spider. No…
"Spider-Man—!?"
Limbs were stuck in all directions, dark and ominous. Then came the drop and disappearance. Then came the hand on her throat.
BAM!
Her back hit the wall hard enough to rattle the cables behind it.
The Symbiote-blanketed Spider-Man held her there, invisible no longer and his red emblem beaming through. Equally as terrifying as the dark costume was the grip tight around her neck. The psychological and physical capture. From the moment she entered, he had been watching and crawling near her. And most importantly, Herbie had been running every facial software to find out she was.
"You don't exist. Meaning, you work for Harold," he said coldly. "Talk. Tell me everything about this place. Anything and everything. These capsules—what are they for ?"
Gwen. That was the answer. And the Sheath too, he suspected. But he wanted to hear it from this woman. And more, if possible. He wanted her to fill in the blanks herself.
"H—hk—!" The woman choked, her hands flying up to his wrist, trying to pry him off. When that didn't work, her arms reached down. If she was trying to reach her contacts, too little, too late. His hands crackled with black and red bioelectricity. It went from his heart through his arm and surged through her.
The woman jolted as the current ran through her system. The lights in the room flickered. The computers stuttered. For a brief moment, everything glitched—power disrupted, signals scrambled.
She gasped and went limp. She wasn't majorly hurt. With Rash and Herbie's help, he could calculate a special blend and dosage of bioelectricity to minimize biology and target tech.
"Please answer me. I don't want to hurt you any more than I do."
"H-Harold? No!" the woman gasped, her voice strained. "I-I'm—gah! S-Spider-Man!? I-I'm a friend! G-Gwen's contact!"
…huh?
Gwen?
"Contact?" he repeated, his tone flattening. "For what?"
"S-since my Earth!" she managed, still struggling to breathe properly.
"…Your Earth?" His brows furrowed. "Who in the hell are you?"
"X-Xina Kwan!"
"Xina…?"
What a strange name. He held her there for another second, studying her face more closely now. Chinese, from the looks of it. She had long, luscious black hair and brown eyes that…wait, were those tech contacts? His bioelectricity disabled them but his scanners picked up on them.
He had Herbie double-check the facial recognition software. There were always mistakes with those. But as he said, logic and deduction set in.
'She should be working for Harold. Right? So…she should know Gwen. Maybe she's high-ranking? He told her about him? Is she lying?'
Still, he released her. She posed no threat to him. She slid down the wall, coughing.
"What Earth?"
"2099!"
…no way. Slightly afraid, she didn't get up. That…was his mistake.
"You're kidding. What city?"
"Nueva York!"
Oh my god. Suddenly, his head was hurting. 'Why is Gwen's contact here? What?'
A contact. Yeah, that made logical sense but…why was she here?
"When the particle accelerator went off, there was the Black Cat, the Black Widow, and Spider-Man. And they all came years ago."
"H-how do you know about that? You're…" Xina looked up and down. "Spider-Man. S-so…you've been…"
"Keep track of everything, yes. Mostly anyway." He held out a hand. "Sorry about this. This place…it's…"
Important. It was where Gwen was taken after she escaped the SHIELD facility. It was where Harry and Elsa Brock often went for experiments and rest. The capsules were proof. He had yet to conduct a full investigation but…
"It has traces of the Symbiote," he told her. As if to prove he meant no harm, he went over and checked the capsules. The glass was shattered with holes. Both of them. One hole was larger than the other. "This left one…"
"That was where Gwen was kept."
He glanced over. Xina was coming over and joining him, albeit tentatively. She was still trying to shake off her fear of this dark Spider-Man. The red emblem and super serious tone didn't help either. He didn't say a word except blink when he saw her eyes glow blue. Those tech contact lenses, they were scanning the capsules.
"Yeah, definitely this left one." Xina pointed. "This was where Gwen was. There's traces of Venom. And the right…the Sheath."
The mighty Sheath. The thing everyone was looking for. It wasn't here. Obviously. But there were traces of it. Herbie detected something too.
'Mmm....yes, it was here. That...thing...!'
Rash detected it too. Hell, his Spidey-Sense tingled ever so slightly as well.
'Herbie, is it possible to track this radiation?'
'WE WILL ATTEMPT TO DO. PLEASE STAND BY.'
Lenses changed again and again and again. Herbie was going through different settings, it seemed. In the meantime...
"Venom," Spider-Man said it like a question, when in reality, he was aware of what it was. He just wanted to know if Xina knew what it was. If she was who she said she was.
"Yes, Gwen's Symbiote…" Xina mumbled. "It was unstable from the moment I met her. The prototype Elsa Brock gave her, Venom we call it, it just…it wasn't good enough."
"Uh-huh. And when did you meet her?"
"Back…back in our dimension. She…"
"You can tell me," he said.
"...I'd…rather not."
That was when he turned and Xina stumbled back a little. Felix tried not to get frustrated. He just extended a hand. "I'm sorry. I mistook you for someone else is all."
"Harold, yeah. He's…"
"The enemy."
"The supervillain," Xina corrected.
"Mhm. He calls himself the Red Goblin." Spider-Man lowered his hand when the name got to her. "What?"
"The…the Red Goblin? He's here? On this Earth?" It was like thep pieces were falling into places. "No wonder…"
"You know him?"
As incredulous as it was, she nodded. "Y-yes, of course we do! On our Earth, he's one of the most vile villains in Nueva York's history! There was the Hobgoblin but…he was different. He was more influential. He had an army and then…disappeared."
"Disappeared?"
Felix had to stop to think again. Over two years ago, the particle accelerator went off and four individuals went from the 2099 Earth to here. 'That was Felicia, Hobie, Czarina, and Gwen. Gwen ended up at the SHIELD prison, where she was experimented on. And a week before Creature Z attacked…she escaped. And so did Harold.'
It had bugged him. It had always bugged him.
How had the Emporium Auction House become so mighty?
How had Harold aged so much?
"Time dilation."
"Huh?"
"No, time displacement," Felix murmured. He looked down at her. She wasn't short, she was pretty tall. But sometimes, for intimidation, Rash made him taller. "Xina, do you come to this dimension often?"
"Not at all. This is my first time here." Xina stood with dignity, tugging on her yellow jacket and straightening her green shirt and black pants. Very strange fashion. He could see how it could be futuristic.
"So how did you know to come here? To this specific town? In this specific house?"
"Because I'm a genius." Xina paused, wanting her arrogance to settle in first. "And me and Gwen were in correspondence...sort-of. They were short messages. My tech kind of worked between dimensions, but the messages could only be twenty characters."
"And Gwen told you she was here?"
"Yes. She and I were friends. Good friends. Me, her, and…" The last name, she didn't want to say. So Felix said it for her.
"Hobie?"
That caught her off-guard. Xina was trepid. "You...know him?"
"You…" He looked her up and down. Her left knee was shaking. "No experience in fieldwork but very much smart and arrogant. Ah, you must be the woman in the chair."
He read her like a book and Xina was shell-shocked.
"When Hobie and Gwen were there that day after the super collider, you weren't there in person but as a contact, I bet. Comms or whatever." Felix went solo; that didn't mean other heroes did.
"You…how…who…"
"I'm Spider-Man. It's my job to know."
"Well, Miguel could learn a thing or two from you," Xina murmured. "But…yes, that was me. That was my job. I lost complete contact with Hobie. I think his device got destroyed. But I managed to get ahold of Gwen."
Ah, SHIELD must have repaired it. Although Hobie was smart, he mentioned he had few resources when he started out here. He was desperate and that was why he worked at Ororo's island.
"She…the messages were never frequent due to the time dimensional cross but they stopped completely recently."
"Time...dimensional cross?"
"Yes. Two months in your world is about a year in mine, give or take."
"So technically, it's not 2099. It's 2111."
Which Czarina wouldn't know probably.
"That's because it's called Earth 2099 too," Xina added."
"Is that right?" Well, putting plugging those numbers in mind, Felix had one last question. "And how long did the Red Goblin have his reign of terror?"
"A year." Xina blinked. "Which for you would be two months."
"Someone brought Harold to 2099 and gave him what he needed to jumpstart here," Felix said. "Any idea who?"
"I don't know. No one knows. He just...came out of nowhere."
"That's not possible. No one comes from nothing. You were investigating him, weren't you?"
"I-I was but without Hobie or Gwen, I..." Xina took a deep breath, calming herself. "Look, my theory is Alchemaxx. They're the only ones with dimensional technology and the only people with no morals or foresight. If there's a shitty person or idea that can make them money, they'll take it. And someone like the Red Goblin...I can see them as someone that they accidentally gave too much power to."
"Alchemaxx, huh..."
"They're a huge monopoly. They make Oscorp's influence look like a joke and not in a good way. They're crueler, they have more politicians in their pockets, they're crooks and gangsters in suits. " Felix smiled at the spite by which Xina said all that. "But credit where credit is though: they make some shocking, cutting-edge tech. And the dimensional tech was one of them, though in the experimental phases. They preferred messages and sending objects over rather than people."
Hrm. Good to know all that.
"Me, Hobie, and Gwen were investigating them," Xina continued, "and found out that they were doing cross-dimensional trade with a couple dimensions. On Earth 65, your dimension, I believe it was—"
"An auction house called Club Scorpion. Run by the Scorpion, Jefferson Davis." Felix was learning a lot more than he anticipated, and he was relieved. The gamble was paying off.
"Yes, the Scorpion, that was his code name. How do you…?"
"I shut it down."
"Ah…" Xina blinked and murmured, "So that's why…"
Looks like Xina was getting some answers too.
"So the Red Goblin, did he work with Alchemaxx?"
"No, not at all. He terrorized them too."
Felix snorted. Yeah, he was being half-sarcastic with that question. There was no way that bastard would do anything other than reject the world order.
"Rejected them, hurt them, and stole from them," Xina went on to say. "There was this teleportation pad tech that he stole from that. It was supposed to be the next evolution in public transportation and he just…bombed it. And took it for himself. That was when shock hit the rails."
"He bombed it? Himself?"
"Yeah, on his glider. In his final fight against Alchemaxx, he lost it and his bombs, I think. They were…well, if they were here, I'd be surprised if New York was still standing. His bombs were nuclear fission powered."
So that was how Harold built the Emporium Auction so quickly. He stole from them too. But still, bombing them willy-nilly? That didn't sound like him.
'Unless…that world was dyspontian. Unless…what Harold fears is us becoming them.'
It was just a quick guess, nothing at all deep. It wasn't like he asked Xina what 2099 was like. But…he got the feeling he was right anyway.
Felix looked back at the two capsules. He could feel Xina tense up a little.
"Thank you, Xina. I appreciate it."
"You're…Spider-Man," Xina said carefully. "You're really Spider-Man. Of this Earth."
"Don't believe me?"
"I mean…Gwen is supposed to be the Spider-Person of her Earth. I'm just…surprised someone took up the mantle. She made it sound like everyone on her Earth hated her."
He laughed. That, more than anything, surprised Xina.
"No, not everyone. Heroes aren't perfect, never are, but they do inspire. Sometimes, I know, it's hard to realize that but they do. Trust me." He smiled under his mask and extended a hand. "Thank you for helping me."
Xina looked down at his hand. She inhaled and with a shaking hand, she took it.
"Spider-Man, I…I was, no, I am here to look for Gwen. Hobie too. It's been so long since I last saw them that I...I'm beginning to forget their faces. I know from the time displacement that I'm way older than them now. That...no time has passed at all." She laughed an awfully sad laugh. "But I had to see them. I stole the schematics for Alchemaxx's dimensional device, built the shocking thing, and got here but…there's…nothing. Where is Gwen? Do you know where she is? The last thing she told me is that she was chasing after something in her dream and that she thinks she can heal herself with it."
Xina really must have gotten here super recently. "Hobie is okay. He's travelling New York with a band." Xina was relieved by that. "But Gwen...she's…currently in SHIELD custody."
Panic shook Xina, hairs standing up. Even her luscious long black hair was splintered by the revelation. "She's what!? No, no…they'll…SHIELD is…"
"Don't worry, I have someone watching over her. An inside woman that'll keep an eye and make sure nothing bad happens."
Xina shook her head. She didn't just take Spider-Man's hand, she pulled it to her heart. "Please. Please help Gwen. The Symbiote, Venom, it…it makes things hard for her. And things were already so hard for her. Please…save her."
This was the first time Felix had ever met this woman.
So what?
"I promise," he said sincerely.