Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
Peter felt like his face had swollen up into a pig's head. He could probably give Peter Porker a run for his money now.
Well, if getting hit helped her vent, then fine. He had hidden things from her first, after all. As long as she cooled off, that was all that mattered. It was just a shame about his handsome face. Now it had been beaten so badly it barely looked human.
Watching Peter and Spider-Gwen bicker so intimately, Miles could not help feeling a little down. A young boy's feelings always came out of nowhere. Even though Spider-Gwen had already made it clear that she liked someone else, he had never expected that person to be this Peter.
Peter noticed that burning stare too, and instantly labeled the kid a romantic rival.
He knew the guy had no chance at all, but even thinking about my girl is still not allowed.
"Miles Morales!"
"What..." Snapping out of it, Miles looked at Peter's teasing expression in confusion.
"If I remember right, you've got two childhood friends, don't you? What were their names again... Phin and Rick Mason, right?"
Miles looked startled. Peter was clearly from another universe, so why did he know so much about him?
And that smile on his face was way too creepy.
"How do you know that?! Aren't you from another universe?!"
Miles understood exactly what Peter meant. You already have childhood friends, and you still want to hit on my girl? You've got some nerve.
"Every parallel universe has the same people and similar paths. It's not strange that I've seen you before. Though it was when you were younger. Still, you left a pretty deep impression on me."
Peter brushed it off with a vague explanation. In truth, he had never met Miles in his own universe. Maybe there wasn't even a Miles there. Or maybe the Miles in his world was a girl. Who cared.
Back in his previous life, he had read comics and played games. Even if he did not know how this story would unfold now, earlier parts of Miles's life should still be roughly the same.
He had played a game before called Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
The whole story was basically this: a Black kid named Miles got bitten by a mutated spider by chance and ended up with powers like Spider-Man's. Then Spider-Man went abroad with Mary Jane, leaving Miles as the only Spider-Man in New York.
That was the player character.
After that, Miles trained using the lessons Spider-Man had left behind while fighting the Underground led by his childhood friend Phin.
He also discovered that his uncle Aaron Davis was actually the Prowler.
In the end, he went to Oscorp and fought Phin again after she became the Tinkerer.
After defeating her, Miles used his own powers to absorb the energy from Nuform to keep it from exploding.
Then Phin sent him high into the air.
The energy inside Miles exploded and killed Phin.
It was a miserable ending. Peter had no idea whether that was the fate of every Spider-Man, or just this Black kid's curse.
But judging by things now, the story in this universe had changed. Who knew whether this was some derivative universe or not.
And with Kingpin still being the one controlling the criminal underworld here, it was clearly different from the game in some ways.
But so what?
You want to steal my girl, man, do you even have the strength for that?
"Then I guess in your universe, we probably got along really well, huh?"
"Quite the opposite. I don't like you. Same goes for this universe."
"..."
Alright. You killed the whole conversation right there. I feel like I should say something, but I've got no idea what.
"Why?!"
"Because you're not a very good fighter. And you look weak. Also... stop staring at other people's girl."
Peter answered calmly.
"Hey, man," Miles said in that distinctly Black cadence of his, "are you really Peter Parker? The Spider-Man I know would never look at people with bias."
"And that gives you the right to stare at other people's girl?"
Peter stayed perfectly calm and continued, "I am biased. Like the fact that you're Black and I'm white."
Miles: "..."
"So what, am I supposed to pretend you're white? I don't think I can do that. I'm not colorblind."
"..."
Miles gave a cold snort. "You talk like you're so strong. I just got my spider powers. One day I'm going to surpass you. And there are plenty of people here stronger than you. Like Gwen. She took down Doctor Octopus in two moves just now."
Peter smiled faintly. "What does that have to do with you?"
"And who said I'm not newly turned into Spider-Man too?"
"As for how strong I am, just ask the others."
At that, Spider-Gwen shot Peter an annoyed look, then spread her hands helplessly at Miles.
"He really is strong. I can't beat him. In my universe, his reputation is even better than mine. Because he acts decisively and fights ruthlessly. That's why he's the Spider Executioner, the Wraith Spider."
"Hey, man, this is embarrassing to admit, but I really couldn't last a single move against him."
Even Peter Porker chimed in.
He would never forget the icy look in Peter's eyes that day. If things had gone on much longer, he was sure Peter would have killed him without hesitation.
"But that's not what a superhero is supposed to do!"
"And who exactly made you the one who gets to define what a superhero should do? And who told you I'm a superhero in the first place?"
Peter's words hit Miles's heart like a knife.
"If I heard correctly just now, then the death of this world's Peter was partly your fault too, right? So rounding it up, doesn't that mean you owe me a life?"
Miles had absolutely no reply to that.
When it came to talking, everybody knew Spider-Man types never shut up. And when it came to fighting, he had literally been webbed to a water tower the night before without even being able to break free. What else was there to say?
"Alright, guys, this isn't the time for that. The most urgent thing right now is dealing with the collider and getting everyone back to their own universes."
Middle-aged Peter hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over.
The tense atmosphere finally eased.
He said in a low voice, "Once we start the collider and send everyone else home, one person is going to have to stay behind to shut it down. I'll do it."
"No. I'll do it. You all go back."
Spider-Noir spoke up at once.
"I'll do it."
Peter Porker said too.
Everyone started arguing immediately.
Miles quickly said, "Hey, you don't understand. I'm the only one who can stay behind and destroy the collider. If you all stay in this universe, you'll die!"
The moment he said it, every Spider-person there except Peter suddenly began flickering and twisting as if the universe itself were rejecting them.
Pain tore through their bodies for more than ten seconds before it slowly settled.
Quantum dimensional distortion.
It seemed to affect Spider-People even more harshly.
Middle-aged Peter gasped and said, "Miles is right. We don't belong to this universe. The atoms in our bodies are being rejected by the universe. If we stay too long, our bodies could break down."
"The Doctor Octopus of this world told me that if it happens, the process will be incredibly painful. In the end, not even a single atom of us will remain. The universe will tear us apart completely and even erase our existence from every universe. Though to be fair, that was only her theory..."
As soon as he finished, Peter spoke.
"Actually, the quantum dimensional distortion has more to do with the black hole created by the collider. Sure, there may be rejection from the universe too, but more importantly, your genes have already been mutated. On top of that, the collider itself was never fully completed, so it's normal for something to go wrong."
Peter laid out his own theory.
After all, nobody knew just how bad the radiation inside that black hole really was. Even for him, despite not being rejected by this universe, he could still feel that his powers did not work quite the same here.
Maybe that was the effect of the black hole radiation too.
"Peter's right. Look!"
Peni pointed at the computer screen in front of them. It was packed with dense data.
According to the files, the collider was a gigantic machine made up of a superconducting magnetic ring over a dozen miles long and thousands of different magnets of various types and models. It consumed a staggering amount of money and resources, and it needed an enormous amount of space to even exist.
To make that possible, Kingpin had used his influence to seize several abandoned subway stations beneath Brooklyn, then connected them together to house the machine.
There was also a project file on the computer. Combined with the clues left behind by this universe's Peter, they were finally able to piece together the full chain of events.
Now they knew why Kingpin had spent so much manpower and money building that massive machine.
In this world, during one of his fights with Ultimate Spider-Man, Kingpin had been seen by his wife and son.
They had always believed he was a successful businessman and philanthropist. That was the first time they had ever seen his true face.
Unable to accept it, his wife fled with their son, but in their panic they got into a car accident and died on the spot.
So he found a mad scientist in the field of quantum physics, Olivia Octavius, this world's female Doctor Octopus, and he also found Norman Osborn, who wanted the same thing he did.
Kingpin supplied the money. Norman backed the project with technology. Doctor Octopus did the work.
Together, the three of them built the quantum collider.
Kingpin wanted to use it to open a quantum pathway to parallel universes, find alternate versions of his wife and son, and bring them into this world.
As for Norman, he just wanted to see his own Harry one more time, even if it was only for a moment.
But then the accident happened during the battle between Ultimate Spider-Man and the Ultimate Green Goblin.
Just as Miles had said, Ultimate Spider-Man was caught by the Ultimate Green Goblin during the fight and shoved into the torrent of quantum energy pouring out of the collider.
And in order for the collider to search for parallel counterparts, it needed a genetic sample from the target to use as a search condition.
Originally, it should have been Kingpin's wife and son's DNA that got fed into the machine.
Instead, Spider-Man's DNA was used.
That was why it summoned all of these Spider-People from parallel universes.
The Ultimate Green Goblin's DNA was also fed into the collider, but only in a much smaller amount. That was why it only pulled little Goblin Harry into this world.
Norman, however, seemed to know nothing about any of it. Most likely, the Ultimate Green Goblin had taken over his mind while he was resting.
And so, after being worn down to exhaustion by the Ultimate Green Goblin, Ultimate Spider-Man had finally died under Kingpin's fists.
Still, the machine clearly was not exactly reliable. Otherwise, how did it even decide which Spider-People to summon in the first place?
The three Peters made sense, since they were all alternate versions of each other from different timelines.
But the fact that it had summoned people of different ages, different genders, some human and some not human at all, made it obvious that the machine had massive flaws.
After all, it had never been fully completed. Starting up a half-finished machine and still managing to summon all of them was basically a fluke.
And every single one of them was a victim of it.
(End of Chapter)
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