“Lucas?”
Someone was shaking me. Was Eric trying to wake me up? But I was tired. I rolled over pulling away from the person.
"Lucas"
They were still shaking me. Annoying. Wait... that wasn't Eric's voice. It sounded like a girl. I rolled back over, blinking the sleep out of my eyes. It was bright, the kind of light you got from the early morning sun. A shadow stood over me. Cindy. She was wearing a white and purple costume. Right, different universe.
“Sorry, do you want to use the couch?” I mumbled, rubbing at my eyes.
“No, no. The others want to meet you”
“Others?”
“Yeah. Kasun and Harrison”
I frowned.
“They’re part of the team”
“Oh”
I sat up, ruffling my hair as I yawned. I turned, glancing behind me. Two teens around fourteen or fifteen stood a few paces away, looking at me excitedly. One was white, and he wore a Spider-Man style suit in dark red and black. The other was a slightly shorter south Asian and wore a dark green and white armoured suit similar to Emi’s.
“Lucas this is Harrison and Kasun”
“Uh... hi” I said, giving an awkward wave. They looked at me then glanced at each other.
“Woah. This is seriously so cool” Harrison, the taller one, said.
“Are you seriously from a different universe?” Kasun said.
“Yep”
“You look totally unbothered. Does stuff like this happen to you all the time?” Harrison asked.
“Not exactly. I did just wake up, so it's less unbothered more still sleepy”
“Oh, I just noticed you kind of do look different” Kasun added.
“Yeah. I think you’re a bit shorter too”
I made a face.
“Oh, maybe it’s our universe’s food. Wait what else might be different about this universe?” Kasun said.
Cindy’s eyes widened and she stepped forward to interject.
“Well, the Northerns are called the Yanks back where I’m from” I chuckled.
“The Yanks? Seriously?”
“I’m sure they’re called the Northerns in pretty much every universe. It sounds way better than the Yanks” I shrugged.
“That’s like calling a team the Yankees” Harrison said, making a face. I chuckled before looking between the two of them taking in their costumes.
“So you’ve got spider powers and you’ve got…” I glanced at his wings.
“A fly’s. I can fly and I’m pretty much as strong as the rest of you, but I can’t exactly . Did I not get bitten back in your world?”
“I… no clue”
“Yeah man, there’s no way the fly bit you in his universe. I bet a spider bit me though” Harrison joked.
“Shut up, like you’d know how to fight if I didn’t kick your ass during training”
“You don’t kick my ass”
“I totally do. Literally ever time we fight”
They quickly devolved into argument.
“Sorry, they get like this sometimes” Cindy said with a nervous laugh
“It’s fine. They remind me of my friends” I laughed.
The sound of concrete scraping against metal sounded behind me and I turned to see Gwen land on the floor from a hatch in the ceiling. She paused, before giving a wave.
“Hey guys” Gwen said. She yawned and rubbed at her eyes.
“You look seriously tired” Kasun said.
“Shouldn’t you guys be at school?” Gwen asked, frowning.
“Uh…” Kasun stuttered.
“Never mind that. Isn’t this seriously cool? What did our Lucas say?” Harrison said. “I bet he was seriously creeped out”
Gwen’s expression seemed to grow even more tired.
“You didn’t find him did you? The other me?” I said. Her expression told me everything I needed to know.
“No. But I’m a lot closer” she said, rubbing at her eyes.
“Where do you think he is?” Cindy
“The current theory is he’s probably in this Lucas’ universe”
I nodded. Given that I’d woken up in his bed it made sense that we’d switched places. He’d probably woken up in mine. I frowned slightly. If that was really true, I wonder what’d happened. I hope he at least went to the science thing with Yerin. She was excited for that.
“But there’s upside. If we can figure out how to get you home, we can figure out how to get him back” she said.
“That’s good right?”
“Interdimensional travel. Sounds kind of difficult”
“I’ll figure it out. Till then you’re stuck here” Gwen said, with an apologetic smile.
“Well, it shouldn’t be too bad, right? You guys seem pretty cool” I said.
Suddenly everything shifted, and I cried out as my body glitched. I fell to one knee catching my breath as the others rushed over to me. Talk about poor timing.
“Shit man, you ok?” Kasun asked.
“Yeah” I coughed, standing.
“Well… there is that. How painful is it?” Gwen asked.
“Really. But I feel fine right after” I said.
“Hopefully it doesn’t. I’ll need to scan you again. It might help us figure out what’s going on”
“That’s fine” I said.
“Are you going to be alright for patrols and stuff?” Harrison asked.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Patrols?”
“Uh… well I’m not sure. Do you want to? It’d help” Gwen said looking to me.
“I don’t-”
“There’s this villain called Reverso who’s a complete nightmare. He mostly keeps to himself as long as our Lucas is around, but when he took a holiday one time he started terrorising the city. I know we don’t really understand the glitching and it looks painful, but he's really annoying and with you out there he wouldn't bother us. And even if he did we’d back you up in a fight! I really want to see if you’re better than our Lucas!” Kasun said excitedly.
“Kasun” Cindy warned.
“Oh. S-sorry” he stuttered.
“Ignoring the fighting stuff, would you be down for it?” Gwen asked. They all turned to me. I shrunk into myself slightly, growing nervous.
“I… I don’t think that would be a good idea”
The others frowned.
“I know this is probably gonna sound weird to you but… back where I’m from I’m not a superhero”
“Wait, you don’t have any powers? I thought-” Harrison said.
“No, I have powers. I’m… I’m just not Spider-Man”
“Wait, you don’t have a Spider-Man back on your universe?” Kasun asked.
“We do, but I’m not one of them. It’s a different guy”
“Wait so… what do you do?” Harrison said with a frown.
“I just live a normal life”
I looked around. They were all staring at me weirdly. I looked to the ground feeling my face flush.
“I don’t expect you to understand but… I’m not who you think I am” I said “Sorry.”
They all glanced at each other the air suddenly awkward. Crap. I backed away.
“I- uh... I need to go”
“What? Where?” Gwen said.
“My Aunt’s house” I said, “I… just want to check something out”
They glanced to each other nervously.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea” Gwen said.
I made a face. That was fair. They didn’t know what I was planning to do.
“I could go with him” Cindy said. Gwen pondered for a sec.
“Ok. But I don’t think they know Lucas was Spider-Man. It might be difficult to explain things if you…” she trying not to find the right words.
“Don’t worry, it won’t be like yesterday”
-
The plan had to been to head straight for Brooklyn, right to my aunt’s door. But I’d gotten side-tracked. Partially because I was seriously nervous, and partially because everything was so different. Well not that different, but that was what got to me. It was the small, subtle changes everywhere. Everything was recognisable enough that if you didn’t give it a second glance it all looked normal. But the second you did a double take everything got flipped on its head.
There were so many different things. Stores, Fast food, films, Sports teams, videogames, celebrities, and even some of the buildings. It was crazy. I’d seen an ad for a NASI mars exploration mission, instead of NASA. The way ads were done was completely different too. It seemed less geared towards products and more for events.
I’d been walking through the streets like a little kid trying to make sense of everything, whilst Cindy had taken me to different spots in Manhattan. Eventually we’d reached time square, and my brain hadn’t been able to take it, so we’d stopped for a bite to eat.
But even that was weird. We’d stopped at Johnson’s, a fast food store famous for selling all different types of hot dogs. It was this world’s version of MacDonald. Though not everything was different here, they still had PFC and Burger Queen.
Whilst we’d eaten Cindy had let me borrow her phone and search up more stuff. The first thing I’d gone to was the superheroes. Athena was still a thing, and just as famous as ever. Apparently, she even worked with some of the spider crew. There were villains I’d never heard of too, like Ender, Reverso, Shadow-heart and Killer Queen.
The Vanguard were called the Frontier here. There was even this guy called Lantern who was part of the team, though the rest of the members were the same. Plus, all the kids of the Frontier were gender swapped, and had completely different superhero personas. I didn’t know what to do with that information, but Cindy had found it funny. I didn’t know what to do with any of it really, I was just taking it all in.
I finished off my fries, as we stepped out of Johnson’s and back out into Times square. It was just as busy as usual, with the same general vibe and atmosphere, it was just that the ads were completely different and for brands or films I didn’t recognise. I smiled slightly to myself. It was kind of cool.
“So, you want to see anything else?” Cindy.
“Nah, I think it’s best I don’t overload my brain. If you took me to go look at Staten Island and I found out the statue of Liberty was different I might lose it”
“It’s just a lady holding up a torch right?”
“Yeah, but who knows maybe yours is red or something”
“It’s not” she laughed. I looked around again, furrowing my brow.
“I thought because of the way we described things, there were only a few changes between now and like three and a half years ago. I should’ve realised it was different from even before that. Like with Emi. She’s blonde here”
“Your Emi wasn’t blonde?” Cindy said surprised. My face fell slightly.
“Yeah... she had her mum’s hair”
“S-sorry”
“It’s fine, it’s not like… it’s not like I can’t talk about her” I said, frowning. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t really spoken about her to anyone had I? I’d seen her mum and sisters a few times in the months after, but that’d fizzled out after a while. Eric had asked me about it but I’d kept it vague and just told him I was ok. My frowned deepened. Outside of visiting her grave occasionally, I hadn’t really done anything had I? I’d just gotten kind of sad around the middle of October.
Weird. It felt like such a big part of my life, but I hadn’t really spoken to anyone about it. No one in my family even knew.
Suddenly my spider sense buzzed. I looked to Cindy whose eyes had widened too, and then we both looked up. One of the billboards flickered and sparked and Cindy cursed as a figure began to materialise out of the bright arcs of blue. I recognised the power from the villain that had tried to take down Oscorp tower years ago. Electro. Electro was appearing in the middle of the morning, in Times Square. Holy shit.
She turned to me and nodded, before rushing off towards an alley. What the? Did she expect me to follow her? After a few steps she glanced behind confused, and her gaze found mine. A look of realisation passed across her face and she mouthed a few words I didn’t catch before throwing something to me. I caught the phone out of the air and frowned at it. What the? When I looked back up, she was already gone.
The sound of screams echoed out behind me and I looked back up at the danger. Electro looked different, but no less dangerous.
“Come out heroes! I feel like squashing some bugs today!” she shouted, sending out bursts of electricity. Windows shattered around us and the people rushed away, some getting caught by the glass.
My heart dropped and I looked around, my chest tight. People were getting hurt. I was right here doing nothing, and people were getting hurt. It felt kind of insane to think, but maybe I could help?
I shook my head. I’d be useless. I needed to run, right now. I turned to run with the crowd but stopped. Running didn’t feel right. I’d ignored things like this back home, avoided thinking about them, but I’d never run. I clenched my fists tightly.
I wasn’t a hero. But a version of me was. Didn’t that mean even if it was a sliver, a small part of me could be something more than what I was, more than just a coward? I looked up at the girl wreathed in electricity as she cackled, sparks of lightning shooting off her body.
My entire body trembled as I stared up at her, willing myself to move, to do something, anything.
But I stood still, frozen in place.
Then a figure swooped overhead. Cindy, covered in the silk webbing of her costume. She shouted something at the villain before they began battling it out in the sky. I hung my head staring at the floor, a sick feeling of dread creeping up in my stomach. Then with everyone else I turned and began to jog away.
-
I sat at a corner street, staring blankly at the screen in my hand. She’d defeated the villain and was sorting things out with the police. There wasn’t an MDA here. Cindy had called me telling me that she was nearly done, but I didn’t have to wait for her to go do what I needed to do. I’d decided to go ahead purely out of shame. I wouldn’t be able to face her knowing I’d just not backed her up. Her expression realising that I hadn’t followed her was seared into my brain.
My grip on the phone tightened.
“Shit” I mumbled.
I got up and made my way further down the road, before stopping outside the apartment complex. It looked the same. Even the window of the guest room of their apartment. Still I hesitated. I looked different to their Lucas. Wouldn’t they notice? But when was the last time they’d seen him? Would they just think he’d grown up?
Did that even matter? If they couldn’t tell didn’t that make things worse? It was like I was sneaking around using a disguise to investigate someone else’s life. Did I even deserve to be going through his business like this? Sure, he was an alternate version of me but that didn’t really give me the right to just mess with his personal relationships or go through his stuff. Would I want him to go through my things?
Probably not. He was me, but that’d just be weird.
Wait, what was he even doing right now? Was he making things difficult for me? What kind of things would he get up to? Given what’d happened here, he’d probably freak Eric out after waking up and then head straight for his apartment. Jesus. I hope whatever poor guy lived there wasn’t scared shitless when he flew in through the window.
I shook my head. I was getting off track. Why was I here again? Right. I couldn’t make sense of why he wasn’t in contact with any of the family. And Uncle Jamie. Though given how that’d gone with Emi I didn’t know whether that was a good idea. I pressed my forehead against the back of the phone case and sighed. I couldn’t tell if I was thinking this through too much or if I hadn’t thought it through at all. Screw it, Yerin was always saying I needed to be a bit more assertive. Not that even really applied here. Didn't matter. I was doing this.
I went to press the buzzer and felt my entire body get jittery as my nerves came to life. I pulled my finger away. Yeah, this was big mistake. Something about it felt wrong. Really wrong. I stepped back from the intercom and shook my head.
"Idiot" I mumbled. I was just going to go back to the HQ. I frowned. I hope I didn’t have to scale that huge building. There had to be a regular entrance right?
I turned to leave and bumped into someone, knocking their stuff to the floor.
“Crap. I’m so sorry” I said, reaching down to help the person pick up their stuff. I grabbed a few things then looked up to hand the stuff back. My entire body went still.
“Thanks” Uncle Jamie said, looking up at me. He froze and just stared at me in disbelief.
“Lucas?”