“You sure you’re okay with this?”

“Of course. I mean you’re practically part of the family already”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Plus, the other two have really wanted to meet you, especially since we got you back. They’ll be seriously excited”

“Oh… wow” I mumbled, my steps slowing as we made our way past a few storefronts.

We walked together through the streets of the city, towards the Spider team’s HQ, The atmosphere between us somewhat strange, well that was probably just me. I hadn’t expected him to be so happy. Along with hearing that the others were excited to meet me. It was somewhat surprising.

I glanced to Peter who wore a slight grin as we made our way into the subway, then looked down at the ground frowning.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“I just thought you’d be… I don’t know. Angry?”

“What? Why?”

“I don’t know it’s just… I guess I thought you’d be less friendly with me. That’s probably kind of insulting”

“Eh, kind of, but it’s ok. I was a bit bummed when times got tough, but I’d never blame you”

“You could’ve”

“You were a kid and hey, if it really bothers you, you gave me all the stuff on the Bears a while back, so we can call it even”

“That stuff was probably way out of date and-”

“It was helpful” Peter interjected. “Really. I should’ve said thanks a long time ago”

“If you’re gonna thank anyone, thank Amy’s mom. She found it and gave it to me”

“Oh, well I’ll thank her when I can”

“That’ll probably be hard… she moved about a year ago. Back down to Florida.”

“Well I can always call”

“I… guess… but we don’t exactly… talk” I mumbled. Peter nodded, deciding not to pry. I looked to the floor, then up at him, the uncertainty still tainting my judgement.

“Are you sure this is ok? Like really?”

“Of course” he said. “Well, I probably should’ve asked the others first, but they liked the other you and he was way moodier”

“Right” I said. “Can’t believe I forgot about that”

“H”

We both went silent again as I smiled to myself, then glanced at Peter.

“You’re really not mad?”

“Lucas, I took the day off work because I was that excited.”

“Seriously?”

“I mean it is a Friday. And even if I was mad, you came back. There wouldn’t even be a point to the anger anymore” he said with a smile. I smiled slightly too.

“… I guess” I said. “Still, I’m sorry”

“It’s ok. Really”

“Thanks” I muttered. ”It means a lot”

A train screeched loudly to a halt in front of us and we both got on, as Peter grinned to himself, then furrowed his brow.

“I should warn you, HQ hasn’t exactly been cleaned properly in a while” he said. “We don’t exactly have the time, plus Jess hates hoovering just as much as me, and Yu hates it more”

“It can’t be that bad”

-

It was that bad. One step in through the front door and it was pretty obvious what places got used often, and what didn’t given the level of dust around the room. The HQ in general was nowhere near as flashy as the other universe.

It was just a one-bedroom in an unassuming apartment building where the top few floors were vacant. I didn’t know why they’d only chosen to use one apartment, but they had. At least it was one of the bigger ones. I took another glance around, frowning as I spotted dirty plates in the sink, along with a few glasses, and droplets of black goo.

I stepped past Peter who looked to me with a somewhat sheepish expression as I surveyed the area. In one corner cardboard boxes filled with papers and trinkets were stacked waist high and in the other one a washing machine and dryer.

Between the two sat a makeshift work bench strewn with papers and more random gadgets. Above the work bench the wall was covered by a large map of the city, various post its and notes connected via string covering the surface. On the right a few Spider-Man and Spider-Woman costumes hung from a rack, next to a bin overflowing with pizza boxes and on my left a dingy, blood-stained mattress lay, a med kit on the blood stained table next to it.

The whole place smelled like bleach and metal. Real nice.

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“Uh… so, not the best, but… yeah. Not the best. I guess I never really got around to remodelling” Peter chuckled sheepishly.

“It’s definitely something” I said. “But if it works, it works”

“You’d be surprised at how effective the place is. Everything works like a part of a well-oiled machine. Well, the dryer doesn’t work right now, but we’re getting a new one. Well, I am. when I get paid”

“Ok” I said, stepping closer to the table my attention drawn to the map on the far wall. I frown as I neared it, reading over the various notes.

They were all about crime throughout the city. Some were labelled Oscorp rooftop labs, some for Tombstone underground lairs, some for Hammerhead and other villains I recognised. But most were for Kingpin.

Places and people of importance all throughout the city. The reach was ridiculous, with at least from Downtown all the way to the Bronx. There were various companies, media outlets, random stores and more.

“This Kingpin guy’s everywhere”

“Yeah, we don’t have to get into all that now”

“It’s fine” I mumbled, taking in more of the map. “I’m going to have to learn all this stuff anyway”

“Then be my guest”

I continued scouring the map, my frown deepening as more and more notes related to Kingpin began appearing.

“Geez, I heard about him on the news once or twice when you captured the last of the Bears members and when that scientist did that confession. He’s supposed to be like a sleazy mid-sized business owner that had ties to some small-time drug lord and those shady underground experiments, right?”

“That’s… underselling it quite a bit” Peter said.

“I can see that now” I mumbled, looking even further across the map. Wilson Fisk. He was practically everywhere, with other people I’d heard of being linked to him. Straight up supervillains. Scorpion, Prowler, Dr Jack Kale, Hammerhead, and more.

“This a lot” I said. “It must’ve taken you guys ages to find all this out”

“Well half of it is what George gave us”

“George?”

“Oh, Captain Stacy”

“You’re working with the police?” I said. “I thought they hated all superheroes but the Vanguard”

“Well, I think the media plays it up a bit, but they definitely don’t like us. It’s hard to get info out of them, especially more recently. G- Captain Stacy is working with a few others in his department to get us stuff off the record”

“Why?”

“Well Kingpin’s everywhere”

“Wait” I said. “You think Kingpin’s working with the police?”

“We know he is. Yu and Jess got a taste of that first hand”

“Jesus” I mumbled. Quickly, I looked back to the map, skimming over some of the other things.

“What’re all these Oscorp labs?”

“They’re Negative Energy labs” he said. I frowned.

“It might seem tame compared to everything else, but it’s important we know where they are”

“Why?”

“They’re dangerous and Mr Osborne’s putting them on rooftops everywhere as part of a “renewable” energy initiative. He repurposed the old bomb testing sites so that they were all what he actually claimed they were before, electricity production centres. It’s to get goodwill from all the bad publicity he got from bomb testing in the city”

“Oh, I remember that” I said. “But wait, if they’re dangerous why hasn’t anyone done anything yet?” I asked.

“He’s rich” Peter said with a shrug.

“That’s it?”

“In his case yeah. We had a ton of evidence that it’s not being run properly, but the city hasn’t done much of anything. You’d be surprised at how much he can just get away with by paying fines”

I looked back at the board frowning. Wait, negative energy as a fuel source? That didn’t seem right.

“I thought negative energy was for bombs?” I said.

“They can be, but for the most part it’s used for other things. One of them is to produce electricity. It’s like a nuclear reactor but a little safer and more effective than other things”

“So the labs are good but dangerous because they could blow up?”

“Close but no” Peter said with a sigh. “It’s a long story, but the short version is we’re ninety-eight percent sure the research labs aren’t doing the necessary things to stop unstable negative energy from irradiating the city. Unstable negative energy isn’t good, especially in uncontrolled environments with lots of people.”

“So, the production is potentially seriously harmful and he’s just… paying fines so he can just do it anyway?”

“Yep. He slowed down a bit last year, because of Otto’s confession putting light on the situation again, but he ramped it back up recently with his son Victor at the forefront taking the project 'to a better place'. He does that whenever things aren’t looking good publicity wise for him. With Harry and the BRC and Susanna and those offices Max was a part of. But that’s besides the point. We doubt all the labs are even doing anything related to electricity production. A few of the newer ones are underground and… different. It’s probably a front for more bomb tests which makes it even worse”

I stared blankly at him.

“Yeah… it’s a lot, I know”

“Ok” I mumbled, trying – and failing – to take it all in. “I-is there anything else I should know about?”

“Uh… well” he sighed taking a seat on a stool by the table. “On the topic of negative energy, we’re going to be dealing with a lot of things mutated by it”

“What?”

“Well, it’s partly what we were just talking about with the Oscorp energy stuff, but also given the fact there’s been two huge NE explosions in the past four years there’s way too much negative energy in the city”

My heart sank like a brick.

“And it’s mutating things? People?” I mumbled.

“Thankfully we haven’t had to deal with any people yet. It’s mostly animals, and smaller animals at that. But yeah, the energy’s mutating things, making them like us, but not stabilised. It’s why there’s been so much coverage of us fighting weird super strong animals in the past few months”

“That’s… not good”

“We’re working on dealing with it. Building NE catchers” he said, gesturing at the devices on the table. “We put them in NE dense locations and they’ve been helping, but we don’t have enough. And Oscorp’s making new labs every month so…”

“Uh… wow… I’m really throwing myself right into the thick of things” I mumbled.

“Yeah…” Peter trailed off. “And there’s the whole matter with the random dimensional rifts we keep getting. But that’s a bit lower on the list than everything else. For now, at least”

I stared at him blankly again, then took a seat on the other stool. We sat in silence for a few seconds and I glanced at Peter, noting for the first time the weariness that plagued him. If but for a moment, he looked far older than he had before.

Then he slapped his leg and stood up stretching.

“Anyway, look on the bright side of things. You’re back and it’s pizza Saturday tomorrow”

“Right” I said, nodding as I felt my shoulders tense slightly. Suddenly a device on the table started beeping, before a voice came through.

“We’ve got a fire metahuman situation on East and 7th. All units report. All units report”

Peter muttered harshly under his breath, then hopped up and began pulling off his clothes, revealing the red and blue of his costume underneath. He paused as he pulled his gloves on and looked to me.

“Uh… I haven’t called Yu and Jess yet but I was going to ask them to come for lunch so we could all talk. We don’t have to but… you want to wait here or-”

“I should probably head home. Don’t want them to skip just because of me. Plus my sister’s probably worried sick”

“Ok. Well… I’ll talk to you soon” he said flashing a thumbs up.

“Yeah” I nodded. Without another word he pulled his mask down, then vaulted out the half open window, quickly swinging away.

I watched him go for a moment, then stepped away from the window and sat back down, hanging my head.

“Well… shit” I mumbled. I looked up and found one of the masks on the rack staring back at me, my reflection clear in the lens. I didn’t look ready at all. But I couldn’t let that stop me. I stared at the mask for a few more seconds, then stood my fist clenched with determination. I needed to heal up quickly. There was a lot of shit happening and the others needed me. Really needed me.