Emi slowed as we neared the HQ, curving around the building in a slow arc as she neared the rooftop. As we came within landing distance I jumped down, landing softly on the roof before checking the bandages on my arms. Emi landed next to me and together – with one last look at the sunrise - we made our way down the hatch.
As we entered we found the studio cleaned, the wrecked machines all gathered up neatly in a corner and wrapped in a thick casing of web. The rest of the space had been cleaned too, and Gwen worked away at her lab bench like usual, her equipment much sparser.
“Hey Gwen” Emi said cheerily, as we made our way forward. She glanced up at us and frowned, deepening the bags under her eyes. Her tired gazed moved between me and Emi before she yawned stretching out.
“Well look who’s back” she said, standing as she dusted her lab coat off. “Where the hell were you two?”
“Found him on a rooftop by the river” Emi said.
“Rooftop? Didn’t you search the whole of the financial district in twenty minutes to find Electro that one time? Why’d it take you so long?”
“Well I found him quite quickly. We sat around for a while. Just talked” Emi said.
“Just sat around? For three, nearly four hours?”
“Was it really that long?” I said surprised.
“Yeah” Gwen said with a sigh. “Next time don’t turn off your transmitter Emi. We’re on a tight schedule with everything”
“Sorry” she responded.
Gwen looked back down at the table, scanned it, then nodded satisfied.
“Ok” she said, wiping her brow. “Well good news and bad news. I think I know how to fix this”
“Your stuff?” Emi asked.
“Nope, Lucas’ situation”
“Wait, you can send me home?” I said excited.
“I didn’t say that, just that I know how to fix this. Probably. Actually, doing it is another thing and I’m still not a hundred percent on it”
“What is it exactly?”
“Well… I’ll start from the beginning so you understand. There are these energy shift things our machines have been picking up recently. Random bursts from this abandoned building in the middle of Harlem. They steadily got bigger and bigger, then nothing for about a week. Then there was a huge spike in it at this prep school a few days ago and you appeared through”
“Wait, you mean NYTA?”
“No, it’s called LMTA. Manhattan” she said, frowning.
“Is it between Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges?”
“Yeah. Did you go there In your universe?”
“Yeah. Is that important?”
“Well… it solves a lot of things” Gwen said, a small smile playing on her lips. “Makes the theory more solid”
“You think whatever brought me here was one of those shift things? At my school”
“I’m pretty certain of it now. If we can recreate it in reverse then we should be able to get you back. And I’ve already got some idea of how to get it to work”
Wow. I was going home. I’d been ignoring it for a while, but now that Gwen had practically solved it a feeling of relief was flooding me. I’d been missing home more than I’d let on, even to myself. Suddenly a door creaked behind us and Rosita emerged from her room, yawning as she rubbed at her eyes.
“Gwen, who’re you talking t-” she froze suddenly as she looked at me. Claws came out and she hunched over ready to pounce.
“Woah! Slow down” Emi said, getting between us. Rosita glared at her, then eyed me claws retracting.
“He’s safe?”
“Yeah, he’s safe” Emi said. Rosita nodded and stalked around us to Gwen’s side.
“Thanks for that Rosita” Gwen said sarcastically. “Now, where was I? Right, the bad news. The method of travel if the theory plays out correct is some kind of portal that connects you back to your world. Technically it would mess with your mind and body, so your condition matters. You got injured quite badly, and I don’t want to send you through just to have the trip kill you. Though we heal quite fast, maybe you’ll be fine”
“Ok” I said. That didn’t seem too bad. I mean I felt good right now. Apart from my arms, the injuries I had from my fight with Reverso were mostly healed. I looked over my tattered costume again, noting the lack of cuts under the damaged sections.
A small smile formed on my face. Fast healing was pretty cool. I wasn’t anywhere near as injured as I probably should have been.
“Quit grinning you idiot” Rosita said, glaring at me.
“Rosita stop” Gwen said. “Anyway that’s the full rundown of things. If we can’t find a way to reverse it ourselves, we can figure out someway to get Reverso to show and keep him still long enough to analyse his power field. But that’s just a throwaway idea. We probably won’t really need it, and if we did, it’d be pretty hard, even excluding his fighting capability.”
“Wait why?” I asked.
“The same reason your physical condition matters on the journey. Whatever happened between the two of you during yesterday’s fight caused something similar to the shift that brought you here. Not to the extent of the first one at the school, but still pretty significant compared to the smaller shifts we’ve been picking up. Either way since this shift included Reverso’s power, it would’ve taken a lot out of him. He’s definitely out of commission and he might even be dead.”
Everyone went silent.
“Well, we’ve got time right? I can spend a few weeks here if I need to”
Gwen’s jaw tightened slightly, and she looked to the floor.
“That… wasn’t exactly the reaction I was expecting. It can’t be that bad, right?”
“What time is it?“ Rosita glancing at her watch. “Six fifteen. Uh… you’ve got about fourteen hours”
“Huh?” I mumbled back
“Fourteen hours”
“I- huh?”
“Fo-“
“He heard you the first time Rosita. Give him a sec, you basically just told him he might die today” Gwen said. Rosita grumbled in response.
I stood stock still then looked around, the sinking fear returning to my gut. My eyes drifted to the floor and I felt the hope start to leave my body, before images of the sunrise earlier flickered through my mind. I clenched my fists tightly. Fourteen hours. That was better than nothing. I had to at least try and get home.
“Well… what’d you want to do first?” I said, looking to Gwen. Her eyes widened slightly, her surprise at my conviction clear. But the surprise quickly faded and she stepped back pulling off her lab coat.
“You need to rest. We’ll figure this out” Gwen said.
“I can’t just rest”
“Luc-“
Suddenly a loud buzz cut through the studio, and all the watches the girls wore began flashing. Their demeanours changed instantly, and they all raised their hands, looking to their wrists.
“Shit” Rosita cursed.
“What? What’s wrong?” I said. Gwen raised a hand to quiet me as her eyes flew across the words on the screen.
“We need to go. Now” she said, rushing for the hatch. The others followed, and I raced after them. Gwen glanced back to me.
“Lucas stop. Your hurt and this is dangerous, go rest like Cindy” Gwen said.
“No way. You all look like someone’s about to die. I’m coming”
“Lucas-”
“I’m ok. My arms hurt a bit but I can fight. Plus, you need the help, right?”
Gwen went to respond but then just shook her head.
“Fine” she said. Then she pulled something off her belt and threw it to me. One of the team’s earpieces. “Spider-Woman you stay close to him”
“What? B-”
“Don’t argue” she said sternly as we all leapt up out of the hatch. “Dragonfly, take The Bronx and Upper Manhattan. Gallant will be there with you as soon as he wakes up. Spider-woman, Spider-Man, you two take Upper West side, and then you’re your way into Midtown. White web and the others will take Upper East then join you in Midtown. I’ve got Lower, and Dad’s already contacted Athena. She’s got Queens and Brooklyn”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Got it” Rosita said.
“Ok” Emi responded. Then with a sudden whoosh of air, she was gone, already a dot in the distance. Only I’d stopped to shield myself from the blast of air, the others continuing before leaping off the building, swinging in different directions. Quickly I stuffed the earpiece in, the pulled my mask on. Psyching myself up, I leapt from the building, heart racing as I followed after Rosita.
The sun was higher now, the sounds from the street louder. Now, as I swung, my mind became more aware of the aches across my body. The bruises, cuts, and stings I’d forgotten about in the peace of earlier. Doubt crept into my mind, but I forced it back, along with the pain, my focus moving to swinging faster to catch Rosita.
Then the earpiece Gwen had given me crackled to life.
“I’m on call with Dad. He just got word that it’s the Tech Heads. Be careful with the bombs”
Huh? Bombs? Had I heard that right?
Rosita cursed loudly, and picked up speed, a new fervour in her swing. I pushed myself harder too, the web growing tauter with tension under my fingers as I swung.
But even as I swung my mind drifted, my thoughts racing as I tried to make sense of exactly what was happening, We were dealing with bombs from a group called the Tech heads, one I didn’t recognise from back on my world. From everyone’s reactions alone, and the sheer urgency Gwen had moved with, this had to be really bad.
Bombs were always bad, but Rosita had picked up the pace specifically when she’d heard it was the Tech Heads.
But that didn’t exactly help me figure out a way to help deal with the situation. I had to think about what we were actually doing. Stopping bombs. So, there were bombs everywhere? How many? And why? This had come at a seriously bad time too, really early in the morning. Whoever had done this had planned it ahead of time.
They probably expected us to be asleep, and for the police response time to be slower. The thought made me feel even further out of depth than before. This was serious. Dammit, should I have stayed. I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time to doubt myself, it was time to ask questions. Even if it made me seem like an idiot. Awkwardly I reached for my ear and spoke.
“Uh… what exactly are we doing?”
“Stopping bombs” Gwen said.
“Right, but what kind of bombs?”
“The Negative energy kind”
I frowned, confused.
“Aren’t they small? Explosion wise”
“I don’t know about your universe, but here they’re pretty big”
“Like… nuke big?”
“No not that big, but… we don’t want any to go off”
“Why the hell did the tech heads put them out there?!”
“It’s a distraction” Rosita said through the comms. “They’re probably trying to break into the Hortz Bruig. Their leader, Panzer, got put away about month ago. We were looking out for them, but the past few days have been kind of hectic. The equipment getting broken didn’t exactly help either.”
“Rosita” Gwen said harshly.
“Sorry” she mumbled. The line went silent, then Gwen cursed again, fear in her voice this time.
My heart sunk. Me coming here had caused all this. I’d distracted them from whatever measures they’d put in place to keep an eye out for this group, and outright destroyed some of their equipment. My grip tightened around my web further. I couldn’t let alone die today.
“How’re we looking for them?” I said.
“Rosita’s got the stuff in her lenses. Just follow her” Gwen said.
“Right… sorry”
“It’s fine” Gwen said. “Just don’t get hurt”
“I won’t”
I swung faster, throwing my entire body into swings that went closer and closer to the ground. Blood rushed through my ears, and the bandages around my arms began to grow wet again, but I ignored it; following Rosita as she swung swiftly through the streets, constantly searching.
Suddenly her head fixed on a single spot, and she glanced back at me before pointing off to the side. I nodded, and together we changed direction, shooting over the rooftops of smaller buildings as we cut across blocks, zooming over buildings.
“Found one” Rosita said into the comms.
“Where?” Emi and Gwen responded.
“By the Licoln Center” Rosita said.
“Shit” Gwen said. “I’ll tell Dad. Get him to send you some help”
“Won’t need it” Rosita said.
We slowed and landed down by the plaza, coming to a stop. I gasped for air as Rosita simply looked around, unperturbed by the effort of our journey here. I glanced around as she scanned the place, noting the civilians as they looked to us, uncertain.
“Spider, do you have these guys back home?” she asked.
“The Tech Heads? Nope”
“The bombs here, so they’ve put safeguards up. Watch out for the killer robots”
“Killer robots?!”
“Yeah”
“…ok then”
Suddenly her gaze fixed on a certain building.
“Found it. Come on, let’s go”
I nodded, and we both rushed forwards
“Everybody there’s been an incident. Calmly exit the premises!” Rosita shouted, loud enough to draw the attention of others. The words seemed to stir everyone up, and they looked to each other, worried and confused as we raced past further into the plaza.
But before we could get past the crowd completely our spider senses blared. We both darted to side, dodging a random civilian that’d jumped at us with outstretched arms. They leapt at us again as my spider sense roared to life, warning me of incoming danger behind too.
I flipped over it and yanked myself to the side with a web, landing slightly away from the danger. As I landed, I looked back to find Rosita surrounded by several civilians, all of them rushing her.
My spider sense blared again, but this time much closer. I dodged the threat and spun around only to find myself face to face with an older guy in a parka. He attacked me again and I dodged, before trying to slip away.
His attacks continued, relentless, forcing me back further and further. Finally, in frustration, I caught a punch, and tried to push him back. He barely moved, his entire body far heavier than that of a normal man.
“What the-”
My spider sense blared again and I dodged to the side as a blade cleaved through the air where my head had been. It cut straight through the old guy and he went up in a mess of sparks and metal. But the blade didn’t stop. It curved through the man – or robot – effortlessly and toward me.
I dodged it but it snapped back towards me again. I dodged, but the twenties something robot woman that wielded the weapon from where her hand should be attacking me again with an incredible intensity.
I ducked and weaved the attacks, before hitting her. The false plastic skin that covered her peeled away from the blow, but she remained unaffected. I dodged again, cursing at myself as screams rung out around me. Dammit. I was hard to hit robots that looked like people all out.
“What’re you doing?!” Rosita shouted, her voice carrying an urgency. “There not people Spider. Defeat it quickly and move on!”
I looked around. Rosita was ripping the robots apart with claws, her movements quick and fluid as she snaked through the crowd. But it wasn’t enough. There were robots everywhere, not just attacking us, but civilians too.
Shit. I’d forgotten for a moment, I wasn’t the only one in danger here. With a roar I dodged another slash before hitting the robot with a hard jab. It stumbled and I kicked, the blow hard enough rip it in two.
I stumbled back, wincing as a pain shot through my side. Immediately another robot lunged for me and wrapped its hands around my neck. Ignoring the pain, I slammed its face with an elbow then obliterated its head with a fist.
With a new focus I shrugged it off and rushed to the closest robot attacking a civilian. With a quick burst of web, I knocked it off balance then slammed it into the ground. I continued onwards through the crowd, using my spider-sense to seek out the bots, eliminating them one by one.
Finally, I came to a stop, looking around as I breathed heavily. The plaza wasn’t pretty, a mess of robot parts and blood. Most of the civilians had managed to escape in the commotion, and only a few people had died or were hurt. It still didn’t sit well, but it was better than it’d felt in all that chaos.
I wiped my hand on my bandages and winced slightly. My arms trembled, not with fear, but with pain. I clenched my fists tighter and looked over to Rosita. She stood strong amongst the mess, finger in her ear as she looked over the chaos.
“They’re using robots disguised as civilians. Watch out for crowds” Rosita said into the comms.
“Seriously?” Emi said.
“Yeah” Rosita
“Shit” Gwen muttered.
She glanced over to me and gestured for me to follow before racing off. I followed as quickly as I could, glancing at the inured crowd members. The sounds of sirens in the distance nearing assuaged my worries. There probably wasn’t very much I could do for them anyway.
I turned back to Rosita, picking up the pace. We rushed inside, racing at lightning quick speed through the halls, the noise of our footsteps slamming against the floor reverberating through building as we made our way further inside. We emerged onto the stairs and leapt down, stopping at the bottom with webs before racing down another corridor.
“It’s here!” Rosita suddenly shouted and we finally slowed before bursting into a side room, barrelling through the door. A small device sat in the corner, unprotected. A mess of wires flowed between the device, a slightly larger metal cylinder, and a timer that ticked slowly. The timer only had ten minutes left on it.
“Shit” I cursed, glancing at the wires. How the hell where we supposed to disarm it?
“Move” Rosita said.
“Huh?”
She stepped past me and with claws cut through all the wires at once. My heart leapt out of my chest as I stumbled back, but no warning of danger came. The timer had stopped.
“Come on, let’s go” she said, quickly stepping away.
“What about the bomb? We can’t just leave it”
“I’ve pinged its location on my watch. The police will deal with it”
Suddenly the comms crackled to life.
“Just got confirmation from Dad. There’re four bombs.”
“We just disabled ours” Rosita said. “It had about ten minutes left on it’s timer”
“Shit” Emi said “Oh found one”.
“Where?” Gwen asked.
“Near Northens stadium”
“Good. Gallant’s on his way. He’ll help with the robots”
“Perfect” Emi replied.
“Come on Spider, let’s go” Rosita
“Who’s Gallant?” I said, struggling for breath.
“Kasun. Don’t know if you’ve met him” she responded. I nodded, recalling our short interaction when I’d first shown up.
“Spider, Spider-Woman, head straight to Mid-Town. I pin-pointed the bombs using a makeshift sensor and that one’s closest to you” Gwen said over the comms.
“What about the other one?” Rosita replied.
“It’s by Wall Street. I’ve got it”
“Ok. Will the others be meeting us there?” Rosita asked.
“Yeah, but don’t wait for them.”
“We only need two max”
“Got it. I’ll send White-Web”
“Anything on the Hortz-Bruig?”
“Yeah, they struck but comms with the place went down. I’ve sent Athena to deal with it”
We took to the sky, swinging through the streets as quickly as possible once again. My heart hammered in my chest as we continued to swing, my entire being thrumming with a nervous energy. Everything was happening so fast, I could barely keep up. But I was helping. Right now, I wasn’t just patrolling, or messing around whilst doubting myself. I was just doing the superhero stuff. It felt g-
Suddenly everything shifted. My body glitched and I spiralled out of control, the web slipping from my grasp. I flailed through the air and smashed into the hard brick of a wall, a spray of debris ripping my bandages to shreds.
Rosita caught me with a web and quickly slowed, stopping us on a rooftop. But the damage was already done. My entire body hurt from the impact against the wall, my prior injuries, and something else, something deeper. My ears rung and my head hurt as I gasped for air, my mouth tasting like iron. I spat blood onto the floor and groaned.
“Ow”
The comm crackled to life in my ear and Rosita’s voice echoed from it and next to me.
“Spider’s hurt”
“What?! What happened?” Gwen cursed.
“Glitch. It was worse than usual and he slammed into a building pretty hard”
Gwen cursed again.
“Drop him off at a hospital and keep going” she said.
“Ok” Rosita replied.
“No, I’m good. I’m fine. Come on, let’s go” I mumbled, forcing myself up.
Rosita helped me stand, watching me with concern in her gaze.
“Come on, let’s go” I said, wiping the debris off my suit. She frowned then nodded and together we took back to the air. My side throbbed hard now, drawing my attention away from my swinging, but I fought against it, pushing myself as hard as I could.
We continued down the street flying past building after building as I tried to focus on the task ahead. I just had to last a few more minutes, help disarm the bomb, and then I could collapse. It’d be fine.
“Hey fuckface!” a voice boomed through the air. I blinked surprised, and turned to face the source of the voice as I felt a presence start to creep into me. Reverso slammed me with a fist as I struggled against his power.
The punch was harder than any he’d hit me with in our fight before, and I folded instantly before being thrown across the street. I clipped the edge of a building and skimmed across the roof before suddenly slowing down, then shooting back the way I’d come.
A hand clamped around my neck and slammed me to the ground as I coughed hard, my ribs on fire. Reverso stared back at me his crazed eyes visible through his mask.
“I was looking for you all night you asshole” he said. “You ready to die?”