Outcasts of the Spider-Verse (IC/PG-13/Accepting)

Saikazo · July 5, 2023

Okay, let's do once more, eh?

My name is David Driver, and I am this world's first and original Spider-Rider. Yeah, you heard right, first. My world's different from those other Spider-Man worlds. Probably why that Miguel O'Hara refused to let me in his little gang.

Anyways, over 30 years ago, the Evil Eight managed to take over the US Government from behind the scenes. Now we live in a world without choices. Sure, people think they're going to steer right or steer left, but they didn't make the roads. The big choices already got made for them a long time ago. Everything in the end was falling under the Evil Eight's plans. That's where I came in. Thanks to a suit created by two geniuses working with alien technology, I became the Spider-Rider, a fighter for peace and justice! A lot has happened in the twenty years that I have been Spider-Rider. I fought against evil, defeated the Octopus Corps, and I saved the city. Then I saved the city again. And again. And again.

I fought so long I became a symbol of peace.

And then, after many years, my successor came. The Scarlet-Rider. Finally, I could retire in peace.

But life wasn't that simple.

The Scarlet-Rider had his adventures, and yet I got called back into action. We saved the city again. And again. Then his successors came. The Ghost-Rider (Not to be confused with Ghost Rider, the hyphen is important) and the Stinger-Rider.

Yet still, my battle seems endless.

No matter how much I fight, no matter how hard I hit, evil keeps coming back. It keeps getting back up.

Nobody said fighting for peace would be easy though. With all the strength I have, I will keep on fighting.

Until the day that I am gone.

The roar of an engine.

The heavy footsteps of a mighty warrior.

The streets of Neo York for once was not covered in traffic. Everyone knew not to do such a foolish thing. One of the heads of the Evil Eight, Aleksei Sytsevich the Rhino Ruler, challenged the symbol of peace, Spider-Rider, to a duel. Now the two were racing down a speedway, a high speed race with the highest stakes.

The Rhino Ruler's footsteps pounded into the pavement, leaving potholes and cracks in the concrete. "I've been waiting for this for a long time!" The Rhino Ruler snarled as he charged ahead. His massive form blocked out the sun, casting the motorcycle he was chasing into a dark shadow. "Your constant meddling, your constant ruining of my plans!"

Spider-Rider turned his head to look back at the mountain of a man. "You make plans?" He asked sincerely, despite the sarcasm laced in his voice.

"AND YOUR CRAPPY INSULTS!" Rhino Ruler roared as he pushed himself to move faster, slowly catching up with the motorcycle. "This ends tonight, Spider-Rider!"

"You're right, Rhino Ruler. At the end of this day, one shall stand, one shall fall!" Spider-Rider replied with passion.

Without warning, the Spider-Rider swerved to the left and shot a webline out at a lamppost to his right nearby. He then slammed on his brakes, creating a line for Rhino Ruler to trip over. A simple trick, but one that worked in the past.

With a roar, the Rhino Ruler took a leap into the sky, avoiding the trap entirely.

"I ain't going to fall for that a second---"

"Fifth!"

"---Fifth time!" Rhino Ruler landed on the ground, the earth shaking and the concrete shattering from the impact. He then charged after the Spider-Cycle once more.

"Hey, it was worth a shot!" Spider-Rider commented as he leaned down. Quickly and carefully, he fired another web, catching some traffic cones just like bugs. He yanked them up into his hand, inspecting them carefully. He had five shots... he could do this. With that in mind, he turned around and threw one at the Rhino Ruler's face.

It slapped the Rhino Ruler right across the face, causing him to cry out in surprise. He wiped it away, only to receive another cone in his face for his worries. "Cut that out!" He roared as he wiped away the second cone. With a quick backhand, he swatted a third cone out of the air.

Spider-Rider threw his fourth one, this one completely missing his opponent. Undeterred, he threw his final one. This final cone, this last beacon of hope, found its mark. The cone landed directly on Rhino Ruler's massive horn, covering up the tip of it.

"Oh, I got the thing on the thing!" Spider-Rider cheered. "What do I win?!" Spider-Rider could see actual steam blowing out of Rhino Ruler's head as the evil leader's face turned a dark red.

"YOU!!!" The villain roared with the anger of a storm.

"I win me? ... That's a horrible prize. Can I trade it in for gas money?" Spider-Rider taunted. Turning around, Spider-Rider began to formulate his plan. Now that he got Rhino Ruler angry and tunnel visioned, all he needed to do was make it to the construction site. Then he could lure Rhino into a pit of cement, yadda yadda, same old same old.

When was this going to end? When would he actually get that peace he was fighting for? Would it ever come?

Spider-Rider was so lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice what was on the road ahead of him. A strange purple glow drew his mind back to reality. What could possibly be making that glow?

Oh no.

That was a portal.

"No, no, no!" Spider-Rider went to hit his brakes, but realized if he stopped, he would just have Rhino Ruler ram his rear end. With no time to think, the Spider-Rider came to one conclusion.

He put the pedal to the metal.

With a shout of determination, the bike drove straight into the portal. The world around him changed from the city he was familiar with to a great void. It was almost like he was in space, but he knew for a fact space didn't have giant strains of webs connecting together entire dimensions. He held on tightly to his bike, not wanting to get separated from it. If the Spider-Cycle fell into a different dimension, he might actually go crazy trying to get it back.

He looked behind him, seeing the Rhino Ruler flailing helplessly in the void. He was sure that the giant rhino man was shouting something, but the Spider-Rider couldn't hear him at all. That in and of itself was a miracle.

A bright light suddenly shone, catching Spider-Rider's attention. Looking forward once again, he saw that they were about to collided with one of the many webs that made up the Spider-Verse. Gritting his teeth, Spider-Rider positioned himself for a landing.

The two travelers exploded out of a portal in the sky. Below them laid what looked like a very modern city. It wasn't futuristic, it wasn't downtrodden... it was just a city one could find in any average, boring dimension. Looking over his shoulder again, Spider-Rider saw the Rhino Ruler drop like a stone, crashing into what looked like a junk yard of some sort.

Meanwhile, the Spider-Cycle was smoothly gliding through the air. However, could see he was about to land on a rooftop. With little choice, Spider-Rider let his wheels spin, his engine roaring with power. The moment he landed on the roof, he fought to stabilize himself, making sure the Spider-Cycle didn't tip over from the impact of the landing. The Spider-Cycle stayed standing and drove off the edge of building. With a quick flick of his wrists, Spider-Rider shot out a webline, the web attaching to the building.

With the grace of an acrobat, Spider-Rider managed to land the Spider-Cycle into the road. People all around him turned to look, seeing his amazing feat of strength and dexterity...

Only to go back to their own business. It was like that wasn't even impressive to these people!

To be fair, it was hardly impressive to him any more. He remembered the first time he pulled that off... now it was just routine to him.

Shaking his head, Spider-Rider looked around to get his bearings. He seemed to be in something sort of Times Square equivalent. There were stands lined up offering all kinds of foods, several kinds of shops, and a bunch of civilians walking around without a care in the world. Of course, it obviously wasn't completely peacefully, as he could see people loitering around dark alleyways, looking for all sorts of trouble. The strange thing was, all these loiters were wearing what looked like a CRT TVs on their heads.

That had to be some sort of gang thing. The Broadcasters, maybe?

He definitely needed to think up of some TV based quips now.

As his mind raced, he finally found a sign, one that proudly displayed the name of the city he landed in.

Metro City.

That was a weird name for Neo York, but he supposed it wasn't his place to judge.

More importantly, he knew the Rhino Ruler came along with him. And now he had to find him in this unfamiliar city.

"Well, hope you pick me up soon, Miguel." He muttered with a tired sigh as he revved his engine, driving his way deeper into the city.

OP's notes

Spoiler

Alright, here's the start of the RP! Feel free to do whatever in your opening posts, just be sure that you get sucked into a portal and land in Metro City. This is where our first arc will begin.

Excelsior, true believers!

Edited September 9, 2023 by Saikazo

(o ×) · July 5, 2023

Hanging from the bent antenna with one hand, a figure silhouetted by the setting sun looked down upon Old New York City. The building was once known as the Empire State Building, but the city was now the center of an entirely different, not to mention more sinister, empire. Politicians and penny-pinchers all replaced with cold, unfeeling steel. And at the top of it all, the Uru Overlord himself, Ultron. The silhouette scoffed. Today was gonna be a bad day for the Big Bithead. Releasing his grip, the figure fell down into the shadows between buildings.

Goblin on the Streets

Spider-Goblin plummeted through the air, breathing in the city. His eyes were closed, but he could feel the city around him, he knew it by heart. The Building Formerly Known as Avengers Tower was less than two miles away, but Oren knew that the surface would be crawling with drones. As much as he’d like to just swing down 5th Avenue, it wasn’t an option. Oren had almost reached the ground when he felt the ZAP on his left -

“Cyber-sense is buzzing…”

Extending an arm outward, two tethers fired from the knuckles on his glove, embedding themselves in a long-since stripped flagpole. The tethers released almost instantaneously, reeling themselves back into Spider-Goblin’s glove, but the touch and go contact was just enough to alter his downward trajectory. Just in time to avoid the sight of a quadcopter, as Oren disappeared behind the long since deactivated body of a Sentry robot that was slumped against a building. Spider-Goblin didn’t touch the ground as he used his tether-shooter to swing down through an entrance into the subway.

Oren hated the subway, but it was the best way to get through town. While he could probably sneak past the drones by carefully crawling, Mason was very clear that the “gizmo” had to be at the drop site in time for pickup. And time was something Oren didn’t have. Reaching into his bag, Oren pulled out a folded metal contraption, tossing it out in front of him. Rather than hit the ground, it hovered in place, making use of a repulsor array on its underside. With a hop, Spider-Goblin mounted the glider, and began rocketing off through the tunnel.

Fortunately, much of the original wiring still lined the tunnels, and enough of these wires were live that Oren’s cyber-sense could guide him once he had gone far enough that his vision gave out. The lenses of his mask were equipped with night vision, but the infrared light involved would be just as visible to Ultron’s drones as it would be to him. No worries Osborn, you’re not a kid anymore. You got over your fear of the dark weeks ago.

Navigating in the pitch black, Oren traced the city streets in his head until he could feel it. He was underneath The Building Formerly Known as Avengers Tower. Even after the metalhead put that huge “U” on it, the rebrand never really stuck. Opening his bag, his spider glider folded itself up once again and returned to its designated place, as Oren righted himself to stand upside-down from the ceiling. He could feel just how tightly packed all the tech above was. This was Ultron’s treasure trove, full of the most valuable and advanced devices he has acquired in his conquest of Earth. Fitting to be keeping it in the center of what was once his enemy’s headquarters. Fitting, and stupid. Arrogant son of a glitch would have smelted it all away if he knew what was good for him. Oren could take what he wanted, use it to upgrade his suit and glider. But he couldn’t afford that kind of risk. The tinkerer back in the encampment needed that goober, and Spider-Goblin was the only one who could retrieve it.

“Let’s go. In and out. 20 seconds heist.”

Tossing another item, a steel ball, from his pack up onto the ceiling, it stuck in place, glowing bright blue through seams within. After a few seconds, it rolled around in a circle about a meter wide, and with a crackling light it cut through the ceiling, and floor above, allowing it to drop through to the ground of the subway tunnel as a neat disc, the only hint at Spider-Goblin’s infiltration being a wince-inducing crash of concrete against steel rails. Regardless of his nervousness, Oren knew he didn’t have much time to work with, and hopped up through his spider-hole into the vault.

It was full of gadgets and weapons Oren had only heard rumors about, ranging from an ancient-looking hammer with a severed, orange skinned hand still clinging to it, to a dozen or so intact Iron Man suits of armor. Despite all these wonders, Oren was sent here to retrieve a small box, perhaps the size one would expect to keep jewelry in. His cyber-sense made the circuitry within easy enough to detect, and he found his quarry placed nicely upon a small pedestal. He stepped gingerly toward the box, making sure not to trip any pressure sensors in the floor. After a deep breath, Oren picked up the goober, and stood still, fully expecting some form of unseen alarm to be tripped. After a five-second eternity, Oren shrugged, turning around and taking a step back toward his escape tunnel. With luck befitting Peter Parker himself, it was then that the alarm went off, a siren that Oren could tell was audible even as far as outside.

“Shock.”

Spider in the Sheets

“SPIDERRRRRRRRR”

With his cyber-sense practically overloaded in this room so packed full of tech, Spider-Goblin’s regular old spider-sense momentarily failed him. Crashing through an adjacent wall came the hulking form of Rhino, colliding with Oren and sending him straight through a wall, directly out into Columbus Circle, gaudy central statue of Ultron and all.

“Aren’t I shocking lucky? I get to prance around with Ultron’s pet unicorn!”

Scrambling to his feet, Spider-Goblin pulled a small metal device from his pack and threw it at Rhino. The device separated into eight pieces in mid-air, all connected by wire to form a web-like net. As it blanketed over Rhino, a powerful electric pulse surged through it, visible arcing against the villain’s armor. Of course, such a tool only served to tickle Rhino, as he tore it off with a laugh. “Foolish Spider, I am no unicorn! I am the RHINO!” Once again, he charged toward Oren, this time pointing his horn forward with intent to skewer the hero.

“Yeah, yeah, I know Aleksei. Guess the enhancements from your boss didn’t include boosted brainpower?” As Oren desperately clutched the goober in his left arm, he pointed his right fist toward the rubble left behind from his dramatic exit. All four tethers fired out, latching onto a gauntlet from one of the suits of Iron Man armor that had been knocked apart in the tussle. Retracting it, the gauntlet fit right above his glove. Alright, Osborn. Spider power plus repulsor power, hope that’s enough… Sliding low beneath Rhino’s fast-approaching horn, Spider-Goblin sprung up from the ground, and using the rear-facing repulsors in the gauntlet for extra force, threw an uppercut haymaker right at Rhino’s jaw. “Here, maybe this will knock some sense into you!”

The punch landed solidly, and even with the Rhino’s adamantium-infused skeleton it was enough to ring true and knock him out for the count, as the lumbering brute stumbled backward and collapsed. Oren stood up, passing the goober to his fancy new armored hand, and began to dust himself off, “One of these days I’m going to be lucky enough to be able to run an evening errand without having to risk life and liZARD!!!” Spider-Goblin dropped back and performed a backward somersault, as the jagged form of what was once Dr Curtis Connors dove over him. Kicking up with both feet, he launched the Lizard into the unconscious Russian cyborg nearby, but had to do a double-take as Lizard scrambled back to his feet and immediately flickered out of visibility.

“Invisibility? Wasn’t the whole chameleon thing someone else’s gimmick, Dr. Connors?” Before Oren could use his cyber-sense to track down the hiding reptilian villain, he felt the typical buzz that meant danger was incoming. Hopping up to his feet, Oren was greeted with a stream of acid that burned an inch-deep hole in the concrete where he lay a split second ago. “Hey, Mac. Cheese not able to make it tonight?”

Seemingly unwilling to engage with the hero’s attempt at humor, Scorpion jumped down from his perch above, charging toward Oren. Scorpion’s first attack was with his tail, naturally, but Oren tossed the goober up into the air and deflected the blow with the palm of his unarmored hand. Scorpion took a wild enraged swing at Spider-Goblin with his enlarged claw, which Oren ducked under.

“Hey Scorpion, wanna see a cool party trick?”

“Eh??”

Spider-Goblin placed his armored palm against Scorpion’s chest. “Boop.”

Activating the repulsor, Oren launched Scorpion back and into the statue of Ultron, satisfyingly managing to knock it down. “On second thought, hold the cheese. Looks like you’re plenty grilled already.” Taking a half-step backward, Oren pulled a pumpkin bomb out of his pack as the Lizard’s elongated tongue zipped past him, before sticking the explosive onto its tip on the way back, “Your entree, doctor,” Spider-Goblin made a showy bow as the tongue retracted from whence it came, catching the falling goober in his hand. He paid no mind to the following explosion. The Lizard was probably fine, Ultron liked fixing his dolls whenever they ended up breaking. Oren hardly had a chance to catch his breath before a multitude of caped fishbowl-wearing lunatics flickered into existence around him. While holograms wouldn’t normally be a concern for Spider-Goblin, Shi’ar hard light technology made them considerably more threatening. One Mysterio to Rule Them All floated above them about fifty feet up.

“Bow before the wonder of my MYSTIC DUPLICATION!”

Oren raised an eyebrow so hard that it managed to be visible through body language alone, “Come the shock on man, you know you’re not magic, I know you’re not magic, you know I know you’re not magic.” With a wince, Oren’s own body flickered slightly as a second one of himself stepped from the position of the first. “Tell you what, how about we match that with a bit of quantum duplication!” The duplicate cupped both of his hands, as the Oren who carried the goober hopped up, locking his heel within his own superpositioned palms. With a single concerted effort of jumping and throwing, Oren launched himself up into the air. “Show’s over Mysterio,” performing a mid-air frontflip, Oren brought his heal down onto Mysterio’s domed head with a heavy axe kick. “time for you to bow out!”

Before Oren could reacquire his bearing and attempt to swing away, he was plucked out of the sky by a man in an enormous flight rig. Vulture’s mechanical claws held Oren tightly as the pair ascended through the air, up above the city skyline into open air.

“Thanks for picking me up, Toomes, I’m headed over to Midtown. You can just let me off once we get in the neighborhood, I don’t want the meter to run too long.” The old man in the bird costume responded with nothing but a metallic snarl, when Oren felt his spider-sense clawing at the back of his mind, the screech of what could be a lethal blow. Wrenching his unarmored hand free from the Vulture’s claw, he fired his tethers into the far end of the left wing, yanking it inward just in time to block a large steel bolt fired from the arm of Kraven, who was posted upon a rooftop below.

Oren could see Kraven beginning to reload for another shot, but the first bolt struck a vital part of Vulture’s flight harness, resulting in the pair entering what was quickly becoming a death spiral. Oren could see the drop point for the goober in the distance - the antenna from which he scouted out this heist - but he knew he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. Kicking off with both legs, Spider-Goblin pushed his way out of the Vulture’s remaining claw, suddenly finding himself in freefall with nothing to swing from. Pulling out his spider-glider, he tossed it below him, allowing it to unfold as his feet latched into place. With one last profane gesture back at Kraven and the Vulture, Spider-Goblin rocketed off toward the drop point.

It was at that moment that some kind of weird thing happened. It would be fair to say that weird things happened to Spider-Goblin a lot, but this was real weird. An enormous bubbling black hole appeared in the sky above Old New York City right in front of Oren’s flight path. Even though he veered away, he could feel it sucking him in. Oren could see the drop point, with the tinker-built drone ready to receive the goober, but the longer he revved the engine on his glider, the further he slid back into that black hole.

“Sorry Mason, looks like you’re gonna have to figure out the rest without your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Goblin.”

Removing the red and gold gauntlet from his right hand, he placed the goober within it grip, set the repulsors to max thrust, and released it toward the drop point. Cutting the power to his glider, Oren Osborn was pulled…

INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

When Nate Richards explained the idea of the Chronal Abductor to Oren, he had a retrospectively fitting model he used to describe the intricacies of a time stream. As events occur, as chaos theory does its thing and produces unexpected results, branching paths are created. Things become more complicated when it is considered that in some realities, time itself is different. While it may be 2014 in one world, it could be 2099 in another, and yet both worlds coexist. The connective tissue of the multiverse goes in every direction, sticking together anything that has, is, or could happen in an extraordinary Web of Life and Destiny.

And now Oren found himself plummeting through this web, at alarming speed. He attempted to use the repulsor engine of his glider to course correct, but whatever had pulled him in seemed to do so with more of a plan than he felt particularly comfortable with.

TWOING!!

Oren's shoulder knocked against one of the threads of this bizarre web, and for a split second Oren could swear he heard echoes of Vaudeville music - not that he'd have any chance of recognizing it as such. A wing of his glider hit another thread, causing him to go into an uncontrolled spin while a roar like that of a 100-meter tall Japanese lizard echoed through every atom of his body, a shriek of confused interpretation of nuclear allegories. Afraid he would lose track of it in the chaos, Oren snapped his fingers, signaling for the glider to fold up and return to its place in his pack.

Despite Spider-Goblin's best attempt at smooth travels, he had several more collisions on the way to his unintended destination, catching glimpses of spider-people ranging from an orange-haired woman in skating gear to a cartoon cat, but before he had a chance to make any sense of these visions he was jettisoned through a portal not unlike the one that had sucked him in only seconds earlier.

Oren was in freefall, coming down toward a city that he had never been to before. It wasn't too far from home, but he could tell everything here was a little… wrong by the sensibilities he had acquired over his last twenty-two years. Redeploying his glider, he perched atop it and looked down upon this strange, wrong world.

“So this must be Jersey, eh?”

Edited July 5, 2023 by (o ×)

yui · July 6, 2023

High above the streets of Manhattan, a woman looked down from her rooftop perch. Through the black miasma that filled the world's atmosphere, she couldn't see the streets from up here, but she could still hear the traffic, always buzzing about. She wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting up here, but she did know she was getting impatient.

"Eden Brock, stop where you are!! We're taking you back to Alchemax, dead or alive!"

An exasperated groan escaped Eden's lips. The kind one would make when simply trying to relax, but the same interruption gets in the way every five seconds. Her gaze did turn, but rather than behind her, it was to her right, where, stuck to the wall by what resembled a black, tar-like web, was a young man still struggling to break free.

"Who's that?" One of the armed men demanded, nodding toward the trapped man. "What's he doing here?"

"Bait."

"W--"

"Do you even know who you're trying to capture?"

"...an Alchemax intern who got fired after stealing Project Venom. Fisk's orders are to bring that thing back to Alchemax so it can be disposed of. With or without you still intact."

"Very wrong, very false, and very hostile too." From beneath Eden's jacket came a loud snarling noise. "Oh, we don't like liars, by the way. And we really don't like people threatening or badmouthing us." Getting up to her feet, Eden finally turned to acknowledge the armed squad of men behind her, counting them up real quick in her head before concluding that Alchemax had once again not sent nearly enough people. There was only six of them. "Now, you seem to have been fed false intel, so let's set the record straight, one last time."

WE ARE...

"My name is Eden Brock, though I've almost forgotten that a couple of times. Seven months ago, I was an unpaid intern at Alchemax who was dragged on-board - against my will, I should add - as the first human test subject for the top-secret Project Venom, which was designed to kill Spider-Girl. We'll give you the short version from there. We got fired, the project was scrapped, and we argued for a few days because two distinct life-forms sharing a body just didn't sit well at first. We reconciled, united under a common goal, and jointly decided to kill Spider-Girl, not because Fisk says so, but because that's what we want. Of course, we want Alchemax destroyed too, each for our own reasons."

A black ooze worked its way up most of Eden's body, before branching off at the neck. From the suit of chemical armor, an extra head sprouted, looking directly at the squad of assailants.

"We can never go back to our old life. One of us was powerless and afraid, and the other was a lab project not supposed to think or act on its own. Together, we perfectly compliment each other; we're able to do whatever we want, and don't have to be afraid of anyone or anything. We can't describe how liberating that is. And we're certainly not about to let you take that away from us. Not that we think you could, no matter how hard you try or how many of you there are."

The head of the suit slid itself into place, wrapping itself around and over Eden's, encasing her entirely in its pitch-black form. "After all, we are Venom. We'd recommend running and saying we evaded your capture attempts, just FYI."

"Like hell we're backing down from this kind of paycheck!" With that, the men opened fire, spraying bullets on Venom with every intent to bring the beast down. Only to stop in shock as the chemical suit of armor seemed completely unaffected, its form shifting and churning to push the bullets back out and spill them onto the ground.

"Well, we tried."

VENOM

Venom shot one of their arms forward, as if to punch, despite the distance. From the symbiotic bioarmor's fist, an extra appendage sprang forth with the punch, its end taking a form roughly like the head of a spear, which thrust itself directly through one of the armed men. Their other arm, meanwhile, reached out toward a man on the side, extending into a long, prehensile tentacle. It wrapped itself tight around him, before flinging him up into the air, and he soon disappeared out of view through the miasma.

The tentacle then grabbed the next man over, before slamming him into the roof beneath his feet and then dragging him closer to Venom. Once he was close enough, the armor's torso erupted into an array of tentacles, grabbing him and pulling him into the armor, where his form could be seen thrashing and struggling under the bioarmor before slowly stopping, followed by the Venom suit returning to its original size, leaving no trace of the man it had just swallowed.

"Die, dammit!"

One of the men had managed to reload his gun and open fire again in the time it took to dispose of the first three. Venom simply ran up to the assailant and put all of their might into a single punch, shooting him off the rooftop, across the street, and into the next building over. Their hand then reached out, simply grabbing the next man over by the neck and squeezing tighter and tighter until he stopped moving. Just in time for the man who had been flung up to land back on the roof.

With five out of the six armed men disposed of in no time flat, Venom turned its eyes toward the last one. "Tell Fisk to use something much bigger than rifles if he wants to stop us."

"So do you just never take a vacation day or something?"

Immediately disregarding the last of Alchemax's men, Venom snapped their attention directly behind them, a hungry elation in their voice at the sight of the masked heroine before them. "SPIDER-GIRL! We were getting tired of waiting! We set up bait and everything!" From the back of the bioarmor, a singular tentacle emerged, reaching out and grabbing at the webbing keeping Venom's hostage in place before ripping it out, setting him free. No later than that, however, did the hostage find himself in Venom's grip, and promptly flung off the roof.

"Why!?"

Immediately, Spider-Girl sprung into action, sprinting past Venom and getting a running start to leap off the roof. Not even a second after taking the leap, however, her spider sense was already going off. Something was behind her and approaching fast, and it didn't take a genius to guess what, or rather, who. Spider-Girl swung her arm out to the side, shooting out a string of webbing to a nearby building, and immediately yanking on it to fling herself to the side. Not a moment too late, either, as she right after saw Venom dart past her, in a trajectory that would have definitely let them catch Spider-Girl had she reacted just a moment later.

"DON'T IGNORE US!" Venom roared, as they fell past Spider-Girl and faded from view through the miasma.

BATTLE ABOVE NEW YORK

Ignoring Venom's demands to not be ignored, Spider-Girl started forward again, using the same method she'd used to avoid Venom's attack. She had to find that hostage, and catch him before he turned into a red splat on the pavement. She liked to think she was getting pretty good at the whole web-swinging thing, but even so, she was putting everything she had into a mad dash down the street. Not long after her initial dodge, however, she could sense it again. Venom wasn't giving up that easily, and they were leaping for Spider-Girl at a point in her swing where she didn't really have the ability to dodge well enough to escape. Venom and Spider-Girl collided, crashing into the walls of a nearby building where the pair stuck themselves.

Once on the wall, Venom reared back their right fist, making sure to keep the left hand on the wall to prevent Spider-Girl from chasing down the hostage any further. Their fist shot forward, but Spider-Girl moved her head aside to avoid the punch, and all that happened for it was Venom's fist went through the steel walls of whatever building they were on. They tried to swing their arm from where it was, but Spider-Girl ducked out of the way, slipping out of Venom's range by letting herself fall through the gap between their legs, and leaving a gaping gash where once there was a fist-sized hole in the wall as the only sign either woman was there to begin with.

"Spider sense... how annoying."

"Maybe you should take some time off to relax," Spider-Girl called out, starting off in the hostage's direction again. "I bet a good spa day would do wonders for that complexion of yours!"

As Spider-Girl sent out her next web line to continue swinging, Venom extended a tentacle from their hand, wrapping it around the heroine's leg and pulling back, stopping her escape once again. In return, Spider-Girl grabbed the tentacle with both hands, and with the full, unrestricted use of her strength, pulled on both ends, ripping the end that had grabbed her off from the rest of the tentacle. A surge of pain shot through Venom's bioarmor, and the pair let out a horrible, primal shriek as the sudden sensation shot through them, causing them to lose their focus and fall to the streets below, leaving behind a loud thud and a small crater at the point of impact as Spider-Girl started retreating yet again.

"Ohhh... we're gonna enjoy killing her, and we're gonna do it slowly so we can savor the moment," Venom growled, as they got back up to their feet.

Back above the streets, meanwhile, Spider-Girl could hear someone shouting for help. A wave of relief washed over her on the fact that, based on where it was coming from, Venom's unlucky victim had found himself something to hang onto before taking a fatal fall to the streets below. As she got closer, however, she heard something large and metallic from below. Even without the spider sense, she could tell Venom was up to something. From underneath her, a large semi truck quickly came into view, springing out of the miasma and heading straight for her. With no time to dodge, the best Spider-Girl could hope for was to take the truck head-on. Once she'd been hit by a projectile truck, Spider-Girl rolled over, moving herself to the side of the truck and using it as a springboard to close the rest of the distance to the hostage, scooping him up from his precarious perch before running up to the building's roof as fast as she could, setting him down on solid ground.

"Sorry I can't take you down from here, but I've got a maniac trying to kill me. Call the police or fire department or something; they'll get you down."

Next order of business: the truck. Spider-Girl perched herself on the edge of the roof, shooting out a pair of webs from her arms across the street to the building opposite her. Once those were connected, she disconnected the webs from her web shooters, and secured them onto the roof she was standing on. Then she repeated the process as many times as time would allow for, before the truck started coming back down. Once the vehicle came into sight, two things immediately registered in Spider-Girl's mind. One: The truck. Two: The familiar sensation of her spider sense alerting her that Venom was coming, and fast.

New plan.

Spider-Girl leapt off the roof, shooting herself through the air and landing on top of the truck. On the way, she made a point to check through the windshield for any occupants. Nobody was inside, and the driver's side door was open, meaning whoever was driving had managed to get out before Venom threw the thing. Good. Naturally, once Spider-Girl landed, Venom wasn't far behind. The latter landed with such force that the webs beneath the truck gave in faster than they would have otherwise, and the truck began to fall again. Something Spider-Girl already knew she'd have to deal with. Spider-Girl planted her feet and one hand firmly on top of the truck to stick to it, and with the other, shot a web line to the closest building. She was not looking forward to this next part.

The impact of the truck hitting an entire building was enough to shake Venom off, giving Spider-Girl a precious moment to reinforce her web line, slowing her descent until she was able to set the truck down on the sidewalk, free of pedestrians who had since vacated its landing zone. It was a strain both on her web shooter and her arms, but a sigh of relief escaped Spider-Girl's lips when she realized she'd done it. But fans and other bystanders were of course not the only thing waiting for her down there. Spider-Girl jumped, leapt, climbed, and hopped around, but the distance was closed, and Venom was not somebody she wanted to take a direct hit from. While her spider sense was saving her up until this point, eventually, Spider-Girl's luck ran out. After enough time, she found herself in Venom's clutches, the villain holding Spider-Girl up by her wrist, keeping her at arm's length to prevent her from striking back effectively.

"We finally caught you. Now, we are going to kill you - slowly - and then we are going to eat you so that nothing is left, and then we are going to destroy Alchemax." Venom's grip began to tighten. Spider-Girl could hear the cracking and creaking of one of her injectors getting crushed and eventually broken in Venom's grip, and the bioarmor began to crawl its way up Spider-Girl's arm, constricting everything it was able to wrap itself around.

Spider-Girl began looking around for something, anything to get her out of this bind. The bioarmor had taken her arm entirely, and was making its way around to her neck and ribs. Then she saw it. Unsuspecting, red salvation! A fire hydrant. Spider-Girl took a deep breath, and with her free hand, she shot out one last web line of desperation, catching the hydrant by one of its valves, and subsequently ripping it off. The resulting blast stream of water knocked Venom off their feet, washed the chemical bioarmor clean off of Spider-Girl's own suit, and forced the dangerous chemical lifeform that was Venom to retreat into the body of its host as the combatants rolled and crawled out of the hydrant's aquatic assault.

"Not the spa day I suggested, but you sure look better after a good rinsing," Spider-Girl said, shaking her arm to get the blood flowing normally again once she was back on her feet.

"You think this is over?" Venom taunted. "We'll dry off, and we'll hunt you down, again and again. You can't escape us, Spider-Girl. We'll chase you to the ends of the earth if we must."

"Sure will, champ." As she dismissed Venom's threats, Spider-Girl hopped over the stream of water to get closer to Venom, lifting them up and putting them against the wall, before spraying them down with webbing to keep them stuck in place. "We both know you'll just break out of whatever prison they put you in, so just stand there for a while and think about your actions. I'm getting out of here before the press shows up. See ya!"

"You aren't going anywhere without us!" Venom shouted, struggling with all of their might to break free of the web Spider-Girl had ensnared them in. Alas, without the might of the symbiote, they were but a normal person, and escape was impossible. As Spider-Girl continued to leave, it was all Venom could think to do to continue trying to provoke the hero. "This is an underhanded tactic that a hero should not resort to! You haven't won anything yet! Get back here! Spider-Girl! Fight us, you coward! You... you're already gone, aren't you?"

In Eden's throat, the feeling of a large, moving lump could be felt, before the head of the symbiote stuck itself out of Eden's body through her mouth. "Cutting us free," it said, lowering its head down to dig its rows of dagger-like teeth into the webs holding them in place, essentially eating its way to freedom before retracting back into Eden's body.

We have lost once again.

"That's fine. No matter how many times we lose, we only need to win once. We're going home, I guess."

HOME SWEET HOME

After a long day of heroics mixed with keeping up with her job at the Bugle, there was nothing quite like going home. Once she got her Bugle job, Joanna insisted on moving out to live on her own, and found a one-bedroom apartment before long. The place was cheap and certainly not something to be proud of, but it was well within her budget, and the landlord was a pretty good guy, too. She easily could've gotten a new place by now, but by the time that was on the table, Joanna had grown pretty fond of her little home, for better or worse. Plus, the neighbors were interesting people.

Door's stuck again.

That, however, was her one real complaint. The door. She'd brought it up several times, and by the sound of things, getting it fixed was definitely on the to-do list, but she'd yet to see any signs that it would actually happen. Putting about as much force into it as she would have been able to before becoming Spider-Girl, Joanna gave the door one push after another, until it finally gave way and let her into her own apartment. With a door like that, she probably didn't even need to lock it, but she wasn't about to test that the hard way.

Inside the apartment, every sign pointed to the place being decently old, predating the chemtech boom of the 90s and having received no real renovations since. The easiest giveaway was the windows. They were sealed away behind an extra pane of glass now, but the windows themselves were an older type meant to be opened to let in fresh air. Not getting to live in a time where that was a viable option was something Joanna would have regretted, had she any say in when she was born. But it wasn't like she could control that, so moping over it would accomplish less than nothing.

Plus, this was her place to relax after another day in the life of Spider-Girl. Joanna tossed the bag hanging from her shoulder onto the couch, opened the refrigerator, and pulled out a box of pizza she'd ordered the other day, grabbing a slice and sitting down without bothering to reheat the pizza.

"Pizza time. Finally."

As she worked her way through the piece of cold pizza, Joanna opened up the bag and reached inside. Feeling around past her Spider-Girl suit, she grabbed onto what felt like a bent, warped piece of metal, and pulled out the injector Venom had crushed earlier. Based on the look of it, it was - in her untrained opinion - completely fucked.

"Damn. Parker's not gonna be happy about that."

She'd have to drop by his place tomorrow to get that fixed. If something urgent came up between now and then, she could certainly manage with just one injector, but having both just felt better. The day was just about over though, so Joanna could kick back, eat her cold pizza, and watch some garbage TV programming. News channels were mostly talking about Spider-Girl's actions of the day, which she didn't need a recap on. There was one that mentioned one of Oscorp's lead engineers was getting laid off, but what Oscorp did was frankly none of her business; her beef was purely with Alchemax. Drama channels, nothing interesting. Movie channels, nothing interesting. Comedy channels, nothing new. Joanna chose to go back to the news channel talking about Oscorp; it was a story she wasn't aware of, which by default made it the most interesting thing on TV right now. It was also one of Norman Osborn's very rare press appearances.

"Letting go of Doctor Octavius isn't a decision I made lightly. His contributions have been invaluable in seeing Oscorp develop into the chemtech titan it is today. However, over the decades, Oscorp's philosophy on chemtech has changed, and while I still see Otto as a dear friend, and a great man, the distance in ideology between him and Oscorp has only gotten bigger over time."

"Mr. Osborn, can we get official word on the rumors that various national governments have denied extensions to the rights for Oscorp's chemtech testing fields!?"

"I would like to keep tonight's headline focused on Doctor Octavius."

"Mr. Osborn, what is--"

"Mr. Osborn, would you--"

"Mr. Os--"

"Mr. Osborn, Alchemax's CEO Wilson Fisk has openly decried Spider-Girl's acts of vigilantism, does Oscorp hold the same negative view of Spider-Girl?"

Joanna leaned in close to the TV for this one. Suddenly, she was invested in this press conference. And based on the time he took to think about an answer, it sounded like Norman was willing to answer this one! Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her body, and a bizarre, additional sensation she couldn't fully describe. It wasn't anything like an injury. More like... a feeling that she wasn't even there in the first place? And then, a hole appeared above her. Just, a hole, in the air itself. There was no chemtech in the world that could accomplish this, and before she had time to think about it further, she realized the hole was sucking her in.

THE PORTAL

Joanna tried to push herself back down, but that certainly didn't work. She could feel herself getting pulled up still. Her web shooters weren't even on or she'd use that, but she made certain to close and grab her Spider-Girl bag, stuffing the broken injector in as well for good measure. She reached down to the floor, hoping to stick to it like she would on any other surface. Which worked. For a bit. Soon, however, that too proved ineffective, and there was nothing Joanna could do but be swallowed up by this unknown hole above her. She did, however, manage to grab her pizza on the way out. The non-reheated familiarity of cheese and sauce on refrigerated crust was a small comfort in the extreme unknowns surrounding her. In her mind, the place she'd been flung into looked like outer space, not that she'd ever seen it herself. Moreover, it was as if a giant, infinite web was spread out across the entire... wherever she was. As she fell - though in what direction she couldn't tell - Joanna could see many other sights. Things that simply did not - could not - exist in the world she knew.

Worlds of brilliant vibrance, bursting at the seams with color and sound. Worlds of cold, unfeeling steel, where all was machinery. Worlds of stark nothingness, seemingly devoid of anything at all but dry, gray dirt. Worlds of... was that a pig in red spandex?

Eventually, the visage of one of these worlds was moving straight toward her. Or rather, she was moving straight toward it. Joanna braced for impact, crashing through the image of the world, and landing...

IN ANOTHER WORLD...

...face-first on the pavement.

"Oww..."

Upon getting up to her feet, Joanna quickly noticed she was outdoors. In a sudden panic, she reached into her bag, grabbing her gas mask... before realizing something very unusual. She'd been breathing before she got up. She was doing it right now. Not choking on a toxic miasma, but... breathing. Like, breathing air. Slowly putting the mask back where it was, she realized more and more about her surroundings. The open feeling that came with not having your visibility cut down by the miasma. The breeze that felt more like a gentle caress from the air, rather than a clammy hand wrapping its gross fingers around her. People just going about their daily lives, without a care in the world.

Okay, that last one applied normally too, but the general vibe was completely different! They dressed similar enough, but sometimes, something about somebody's attire just felt slightly off from what Joanna would expect clothes to look like. Plus, a lot of the windows she saw were those old-style windows, like the ones in her apartment. Some were even wide open, letting the surprisingly clean air just go inside.

Okay. Calm down, Joanna. Use your context clues. Clean air, blue sky, all that jazz... this must be Latveria.

The more she thought about it, the more that made sense. It was famously the last "clean" place in the world, owing to benevolent dictator Victor von Doom's affinity for chemtech simply being on an entirely different league from even the combined forces of Alchemax and Oscorp. At Doom's level of genius, suddenly, some mystery hole that sucks people out of their apartments and drops them in Latveria seemed fairly plausible, if not downright possible. But something bugged her about that conclusion. Latveria's foreign policy. "Nobody gets in. Nobody gets out." Latveria's isolation was infamous for how strict it was, so unless Doom knew Joanna was Spider-Girl, she saw no reason she'd be randomly abducted to this place. And how would he know that? He probably didn't even know Spider-Girl existed.

As Joanna turned a corner to try and get some answers from the locals, another thing stood out to very clearly tell her this wasn't Latveria.

A towering bronze statue. Dedicated to a man named "Mike Haggar" and the revitalization of a place called Metro City. That certainly didn't sound like a Latverian city name, but more importantly, Mike Haggar was NOT Victor von Doom. While his nation was infamous for its refusal to interact with the outside world, Doom's ego was nothing short of legendary. From what little she knew about the guy, there was no way Doom would raise a memorial to commemorate anyone else, and if one were to be raised without his approval, it would surely be torn down before dinner.

So this wasn't Latveria after all. Which begged the question.

"Where the hell am I?"

As Joanna tried to get her bearings to figure out what this mysterious Metro City place was, a rather average-looking white collar salaryman looked straight at her. And then began to approach her. Quickly. Joanna's spider sense was telling her that this very average salaryman who was approaching her at a full sprint was trouble, but she had been on edge in general ever since that hole opened up in her apartment, so it could have just as easily been general parano--

Suddenly, Joanna found herself instinctively swerving to the left, barely dodging a punch thrown by this guy.

AVERAGE DAY IN METRO CITY

Okay, this guy's got a lot of anger to let out, apparently. Should probably deal with him.

It wasn't really in Joanna's usual agenda to beat up random office workers, but he did start it. And he was clearly out for a fight, hands up and everything. Joanna was willing to humor him, not as Spider-Girl, but plain old Joan Joanna Jameson. It was a good opportunity to dust off her high school boxing experience. Joanna put her own fists up, ready to defend herself. At first, she wasn't sure if this guy was fighting her or some invisible foe in the air, based on his repeated kicking of the space in front of him. Joanna chose to believe his target was her though, as despite his bizarre tactics, his eyes were fixed on her.

In high school, she wasn't much of the "bob and weave" type, but being Spider-Girl, that sort of thing came naturally to her. And so, she bobbed and weaved around his attacks, getting into punching range. As she approached, however, her spider sense alerted her to something. But even it didn't seem to be sure what. Probably just nerves. Joanna threw her fist out, hitting the man square in the chest... and stopping in utter shock at he was completely unaffected. Instead of hitting him properly, what appeared to happen was he was somehow immune to her strike, and was now shooting up with a strike of his own, catching Joanna in a rising uppercut attack. At this distance, even with her agility, there was no time to dodge, and Joanna felt herself get knocked off the sidewalk, shot up and away from this extremely normal person, and landed harshly on the pavement once again.

What... the hell... just happened?

As Joanna got back up to her feet, something unusual happened. The man who had assaulted her threw - of all things - a ball of sand at her. Not only was this extremely underhanded, it wasn't a very effective method of attack. Joanna simply closed her eyes, and was suddenly very surprised as the ball of sand struck her with all the force of a human fist. Physically getting her bearings back from the strike didn't take long, but in the time it took to mentally recover was enough that by the time Joanna opened her eyes, the man was right in front of her again, about to strike her with the same uppercut. Unable to react in time, Joanna was once again shot upward, this time staying down a while longer.

thelengthsimgoingtoforthisbitareconsider

Uuugh... wherever I am, I clearly need to be more on guard.

Joanna watched the man who had just beaten the shit out of her then went about his day as if nothing had ever happened. Even the crowds that had stopped to watch the one-sided fight simply continued their daily routines, completely unfazed by what they had just witnessed. Joanna didn't get back up until her assailant was out of sight, upon which time she took in her surroundings again, watching for violent maniacs this time. It was definitely a city. Aside from the statue that wasn't of Doom, the only place that really stood out to her was a Japanese restaurant a bit down the street. Cold pizza was tasty, but it wasn't terribly filling. Maybe a good meal would make her feel better.

And so, Joanna made her way over there, keeping herself on high alert.

Chaos Sonic · July 6, 2023

A Knight's Tale Ends

"Sir Petrus...?"

Petrus heard the cooing of Gwenllian, causing the red armored knight to turn away from his steed, to see the princess standing at the doorway to the stables. "My princess, why have you come?" he sighed, looking away from the beautiful one before him. "I had wished not to see you, before I departed."

"Yes, Sir Petrus." Gwenllian responded softly. "But I could not, nay, I would not be alright until I saw you off. After your engagement with the dragon under Adrien's control and even stopping Adrien from his unfathomable techniques in the dark arts, I prayed you would stay for a bit longer."

"Aye, and I would indeed stay." Petrus spoke, his gaze returning to Gwenllian. "But you know as well as I do, my princess, that the longer I stay, the more danger that would be caused by Adrien and his magic. It is the duty of a knight to protect what I care for..." he paused. "To protect who I care for."

The two continued to stare at each other, until finally Gwenllian embraced Petrus, holding him tightly and not letting go. Petrus could hear the young girl sobbing, even hearing her tears colliding with his crimson armor. He tried his hardest to fight the tears that hung in his eyes, but it was not to be. From his eyes, the crimson knight began to cry as well, continuing to hold onto Gwenllian and not letting her go. The minutes seemed to tick away as the two continued to hold each other endearingly, but alas, this slowly was broken apart by the crimson knight.

Petrus wiped the tears from his eyes and then Gwenllian's eyes, before he took her hand and slightly kissed it. "Gwenllian, I promise to you, I will return to you." he spoke, his voice cracking with sadness. "I will defeat Adrien and return to you."

Gwenllian's hand remained held by Petrus until she put her other hand on top of his. She gave off a faint smile before slipping something into his hand. It was a small ring with the emblem of a spider engraved into it. "Then return to me, Sir Petrus." she said softly. "This will give you reason to return to me."

The crimson knight remained quiet, only holding the ring in his hand as he looked at Gwenllian. A small nod came forth as he turned and mounted his steed, before trotting out of the stables. With a small jolt of his foot, the painted horse galloped away fast from the kingdom. He jolted his foot again, the horse ran faster. Then faster. And faster...

Petrus tugged on the reins of the horse, before he stopped and looked back behind him. Now the kingdom of Orléans was but a faint glimpse, a far distant goal now. He looked away, directing his gaze only to the spider engraved ring. His mind could only drift back to Gwenllian and her beauty. Petrus couldn't stand being apart from the love of his life, but he swore an oath, and as a knight, he knew he would have to uphold it. He put the ring into the satchel on the horse, before jolting its side again, riding off towards the rising sun.

The sunlight glistened over his crimson armor. And once more, the spider knight rode off, to finish his quest once and for all.

He looked at his computer screen, letting out a loud sigh. Right now, that was the last page he had on the story he’d been working on and off entitled “Of Spiders & Knights”. This was a project that Marcus had started since he was fourteen. Of course, it would’ve been done quicker iiiiiiiiiif he wasn’t also moonlighting as the one and only arachnid based hero and saving the city. He finally got up from his chair, moving away from his desk as he moved around his apartment. “Okay you guys…hit save on that for me…I'll send it to Triple J by the end of the day.” he said, pointing at a small group of spiders that were by his keyboard and mouse, to which they immediately went to work on saving the document quite a few times.

"Who am I? You sure you want to know? Alright then, let's start at the beginning, one last time. Same story, different beats."

From the Top!

"My name is Marcus Mattox. I solved an ancient tablet and got bit by a mystical spider, and for the last four years I've been New York's one and only ~~Spider-Man~~ Multi-Threader! Pretty sure the rest of the narrative you know, or at least the broad strokes of it. Became Anansi's ambassador, became a superhero, lost my dad, saved a bunch of people, saved the city...quite a few times actually, fell in love...uh...she's on the wrong side of the law currently...hopefully that'll change, wrote a book...well...attempting to write a book. Hey, you try and juggle being an aspiring writer while also being a protector of the city and tell me how easy it is! Ahem...anyway, even though I have to juggle the career I'm chasing and being a spider-based hero, I wouldn't trade it for the world. After all, I'm the only thing standing between New York and the ever oncoming threats that rear their ugly heads. It's my story that I've been blessed with...and I'm going to see it through to its final chapter!"

“Grazie, the first of many tales that'll be written for the Daily Bugle Publishing. Now…let’s see if the city that never sleeps has anything new for me.” Marcus said, immediately flipping on a police scanner whilst grabbing his phone. He started flipping around it as the scanner crackled to life.

“ALL UNITS! We have a situation…” the voice said immediately. Marcus knew that always meant something ‘fun’ was afoot. Whilst shoving a chocolate chip muffin down his gullet, he could hear the scanner continue. “...Repeat! Mysterio in Times Square!”

“Oooooh, more waxing lyrical with the discount Sorcerer Supreme!” Marcus laughed, fastening his web-shooters onto his wrists.

Hang On...!
Let's review this...

"Bit of background on one Quientin Beck AKA Mysterio. He was generally just an illusionist that played shows out here in NYC, but he had the aptitude and determination to do more. Apparently he went to study the Mystic Arts from our own Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Strange. So he had the drive, the aptitude and determination…he ended up getting to the top in terms of skill levels to an extent…so what happened? Well, you're Friendly Neighborhood Multi-Threader happened. Mind you…not purposely. See about this time, Strange sought me out for a potential candidate for his replacement and wanted to train me. Now, this was short lived, considering the guy was very strict when teaching anything in the Mystic Arts, plus he hated how I utilized tech with my powers. Nice guy though, we occasionally chit chat from time to time, play chess…even assists me with ideas for my books…annnnnd I'm rambling. Back to the present topic! Beck seems to resent me, not only taking away his chance to become the next Sorcerer Supreme, buuuuuuut I sort of saw him attempting to mess with the wrong kind of magic while he was at Kamar-Taj. We're talkin' like serious Dark Dimension stuff, the kind that would probably make Criss Angel blush. Downside, most of Beck's stuff is all just illusionary based, cause that's all he's good with. Maybe one day he'll surprise me though."

HELLO NEW YORK!!!

He grabbed his suit and immediately tossed it on, sliding the mask on last. He flung his apartment window open and took a running leap out of it, immediately launching himself outward, shooting a web as it caught the corner of a building, slinging him around to follow after New York’s Finest, already rushing to the scene.

The exhilarating rush of the web-swinging helped Marcus…Multi-Threader…focus and clear his head. Right now, he knew how the former Sorcerer Supreme candidate operated, he was a sucker for the audience…a sucker for theatrics, so if he played his cards right…it would be simple. His thoughts, however, were cut short by the ringing of his phone. Luckily he had the earpiece in his ear.

“Hellooooooo?~” he answered with a laugh.

“I assume you overheard the news?” the young man’s voice on the other end said.

“Oh hey, kiddo!” Multi-Threader laughed, doing a quick flip in the air during his web-swinging. “Yeah, it’s ol’ fish-bowl head. So, we know what’s going on at present, Terry?”

Terry simply sighed on the other end. “Honestly, it seems like the same situation as usual, buuuuuuut…looks like he brought in a giant wyrm-like dragon.”

“A wyrm?! Oh man, he’s really upping his game if he’s going that far for an illusion!” Multi-Threader smirked, flipping over onto a SWAT truck’s roof. “Either way, this should prove to be fun for me…gotta cut loose after finally finishing that final chapter! Anyway, talk with you later bro…enjoy the show!” He cut the call short, holding onto the truck’s roof, watching them turn sharply into Times Square. Even before the turn, however, he was already feeling that sensation. His hairs standing on end, a tingling sensation at the back of his skull and the general chills he felt: his Spider-Sense. Once the turn was made, lo and behold, there was the green scaled menace of a wyrm dragon, terrorizing the citizens. “Sheesh, he wasn’t kidding…talk about a humongous beast!” he whistled, flipping off the truck’s roof and onto a nearby building wall. "Let's see if Beck's taught it any cool tricks."

“BEHOLD!!! The return of the master of the arcane arts: Mysterio!!” a figure spoke, simply walking down a set of green magical steps. The man in a green pressed suit with a smokey fish-bowl helmet descended into the Square. “Purveyors of this new age, attempting to banish the old arts from this world, see before you the wyrm summoned straight from the Dark Dimension! You must know now that your resistance to the old arts is futile!”

“So does Dormammu know that you took his pet or did you borrow it without permission?” Multi-Threader piped up, waving a bit at the villain, who now turned towards him. “Awww, what’s wrong Beck, you don’t seem happy to see me. Then again, it’s always hard to tell with that small fish tank on your head.”

“Wall-crawler! You shall not hinder my plan to become the new Sorcerer Supreme this time!” Mysterio shouted, his hands began to have a magical aura around them as two green triangles began to spin in front of them. “Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas!” He spoke, shooting out two green magical beams straight at the spider based hero.

“-Well I tend not to smoke anything, it’s bad for the whole hero image!-” Multi-Threader shot back in perfect Latin, which seemed to make Mysterio grumble under his breath. The wall-crawling hero immediately jumped off the building’s roof, narrowly dodging the two blasts as he fired a web onto another nearby building and swung around Mysterio, flipping upwards as he shot a web ball filled with a few spiders right at the sorcerer. “Seriously Beck, I think you need to come up with some new ‘incantations’, and maybe ones that actually make sense?”

“You insolent arachnid!” Mysterio shouted, already attempting to knock the spiders from the web ball off his clothing. “Totem of Anansi, you shall cease this mocking of the TRUE Sorcerer Supreme!!”

“Hey, what can I say…I’m a mocker, I mock!” Multi-Threader landed on a nearby roof, immediately firing two webs at a nearby air conditioning unit that was on the roof. It was a bit of public property damage, but he figured New York would look past that part. “I’m also a puller…a tugger…a yaaaaaanker!” he grunted, pulling the unit off and proceeded to swing it around before launching it at the arcane lunatic. “Guess I’m just a general jack of all trades!”

“Denique diatem efficacem inveni!” Mysterio fired off another set of magical energy in the direction of the flying air conditioning unit. “Beast of the Dark Dimension, dispose of this meddlesome spider!” he commanded the wyrm, to which Multi-Threader was now realizing..it was real, the damage it was doing definitely seemed 100% real. But luckily no one was injured that he could see…so it could’ve been much, much worse.

“First, congrats on the new effective diet my guy. What did you decide to cut out…the fish?” he quipped, knocking on his head to refer to the fish-bowl helmet. “Secondly, color me impressed, Quentin! You managed to actually conjure something that isn’t a pale imitation and illusion! Maybe I should call the doc and have him inspect the impressive feat!”

The wyrm roared as it slithered towards the wall-crawler, to which Multi-Threader leapt from the roof and proceeded to aim right in the direction of the creature’s face. “Let’s try and blind this guy…alright fellas, show time!” he said, holding his hands in front of him as he flung a few spiders that crawled along from them towards the oncoming beast. Once they were on the creature, Multi-Threader immediately moved mid-air to narrowly grab onto the wyrm. “Okay…time for some blindness. Go for its eyes!” For some, it would look like nothing was happening at first…until a loud, ear-piercing roar was heard from the wyrm…what truly was happening was Multi-Threader’s spiders were in the process of biting the creature’s eyes over and over again.

“Alright, that’s Plan A…now…didn’t get to Plan B yet…” he grumbled, before running along the wyrm’s back, webbing one side of it’s head before swinging around it’s open mouth, narrowly avoiding it’s closing jaws, before webbing the other side. Now he held a makeshift set of webbed reins. “Alright boy…HEEL!!!” he shouted, yanking the reins upward and getting the wyrm to cease its moves.Eventually, it would stop, whether by the pulling or just due to the sheer exhaustion it was feeling. Regardless of the reason, he let go of the reins and stood victoriously over the wyrm…who…began to fade and disappear beneath his feet. “Awwww, so it was an illusion? Man, you had me convinced there Beck. Lemme take a guess…illusions with a sort of a Dark Dimension styled buff to make em feel more realistic in the moment? Gotta say, you're putting more work into this than you usually do. It's almost impressive…almost being the keyword."

“Grrrr…you and your insistent meddling with my destiny shall not stand, wall-crawler!” Mysterio began to slowly descend, holding a hand out towards Multi-Threader. “Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere!” A quick bolt of magic was delivered towards the spider-hero, with another being prepared in succession.

Multi-Threader glanced over, seeing a manhole cover and immediately fired a web at it, yanking it towards him as he used it as a shield against the first bolt of magic. He immediately spun a bit before launching it at Mysterio. “Cap…eat your heart out! Also, I'd kindly ask you to leave Elvis out of this. Let the King of Rock rest already, for Pete Sake!”

Mysterio was hit by the manhole cover, trying to get his bearings back together, grumbling. “Nullae satisfactionis p-...”

“Yeah yeah, you can’t get no satisfaction!” Multi-Threader was already right there in front of Mysterio, delivering a punch right into his helmed face, knocking him onto the ground. “Least you could do is not rip off Mick Jagger…first Elvis now Jagger, for shame.” he said, snapping his fingers as suddenly he was beginning to be webbed up like it was nothing. After a few moments, Multi-Threader had those few spiders start to crawl back up towards him. “Job well done, fellas.” he watched as the last one came up, noticing that it left the message: Baddie Bagged, courtesy of the Magnificent Multi-Threader. “Alright, time for us to go.” Multi-Threader chuckled. “Lest the news media decides to want to pin this on me…oh what am I saying, some most likely will anyway!” He grabbed onto a nearby light pole, swung upwards before firing a web to grab the nearest building, swinging away.

Or at least…he would've, if something didn't immediately catch his eye. A bubbling black hole slowly opening nearby. Multi-Threader paused in his stride, sticking to a nearby wall, staring at the strange portal. He tapped his ear and immediately called Terry once more. "Hey kiddo…"

"Marc! Saw everything, you really got him good this time round!"

"Yeah…listen, there's a strange portal-like sight I'm looking at right now." Multi-Threader continued, sounding a little serious. "May want to cancel the plans with me coming to see you and the missus…"

"...Marc don't do anything stupid, please…"

A chuckle escaped his lips. "Me? Stupid? C'mon kiddo, it's more-or-less called creative curiosity. I'll be back, don't worry." he said, hearing his brother sigh on the other end. Once the call was over, the arachnid based hero made his way towards it, getting closer and closer…though it was beginning to be a bit too close…like at an alarming rate.

"Okay…it's sucking me in like a Hoover…wonderful!!!" Multi-Threader shouted, trying to resist but ultimately took the plunge and was drug in.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...the Spider-Verse?

Multi-Threader wasn't too thrilled about this insane roller-coaster of a ride he was being taken on…even noticing a few of his spiders crawling on his arm and beginning to web a sign saying: S.O.S. "I doubt anyone's gonna answer that, fellas!" he shouted, falling or being drug along through wherever he was going even more.

He did, however, eventually see quite a sight he'd never seen before. Was it…space? No…that couldn't be the case, as he could still breathe. Scratch space out of the equation for the moment. If not space, then what? He didn't have much time to ruminate on it, considering his eyes were glued on the grander picture before him. An infinite web…spread across this strange void. "Curiouser and curiouser…" he muttered, continuing to fall as apparently others before him did. As he passed by…he was stunned at seeing the sights he did. World's that were similar to his own…but vastly different.

"It's a full on multiverse…interconnected by these weaved webs…" Multi-Threader guessed to absolutely no one. He had heard that it might've been possible, but this wasn't something he figured was. He passed by a few of these interconnecting threads…seeing the world's and even specific things. For instance, a young man being hit with an ancient arrow and obtaining a ghostly spider-like being that came from within… Then there was a robotic heroine dressed to the nines in black armor… And…was that a horde of spiders, dressed up in a spandex suit? That one there sort of hit home for him to an extent…just like how the world that was in front of him was planning to.

"Oh damnit…" he gulped, bracing for impact as he was practically launched right out the portal into the air. It was a strange looking city, though at first glance he could've mistook it for Manhattan. Nevertheless, Multi-Threader exhaled slowly, immediately looking around as he found a nearby rooftop and a billboard on it. "Now…let's hope…my aim ain't off…otherwise this spider is going splat!" he muttered, immediately launching his web right to the billboard. It stuck successfully, allowing him to swing gracefully upward and land on top of the roof.

"Alright, stuck the landing!!" Multi-Threader huffed lightly. "Now…where in the world am I?" He looked around, before glancing at the billboard and noticed the words: Metro City. "Metro City? Well, I officially know I'm not in Kansas anymore…and luckily no house was dropped on me." He took a moment to attempt to gather his thoughts, about the time a glider flew past his peripheral.

Well, perhaps "flew past" is a bit of a stretch...it was more like it was stationary and hovering at about 50 feet above the roof line. Unbeknownst to him, it wasn't who he thought it was…but he wouldn't know this or care. "Oh goodie, looks like the Wicked Witch sent out at least one of her favorite flying monkeys after me. Well, better not keep ol' Norman waiting!" He began to jump building after building, eventually web-swinging towards the glider. "Ayyyyy Gobby! Been a bit! What's the plan this time? Drag me into a new dimension, attempt to squash the spider? Ooooh! Or are you planning to open that Goblin themed restaurant you've always wanted??" Multi-Threader called after the "Goblin".

Edited July 6, 2023 by Chaos Sonic

Mr. Hyde · July 9, 2023

EARTH-5555

"So...this is how it ends for the Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible Beatdown, huh? What a drag…"

In the sky above New York City, a slender, black figure was hurtling towards the ground at break-neck speeds. Their limbs beating against the cold air as they fell helplessly through the higher levels of the atmosphere. It was hard to breath up here, and it was even harder to breath with her right lung collapsed. Today was just not her day.

Earlier

"Today is totally gonna be the day!" A young red haired girl peeked out of her studio-apartment building's blinds, peering down at the busy city sidewalks below. She watched them like a hawk, making sure nothing would get in the way of her big plans today. On a calendar, next to the window, a big red circle was marked around today's date. Inside the circle, in big bold red ink, read: 'Stop Dad For Good!'. Her father, of course, was Harry Osborn, current CEO and resident madman or Oscorp! And who was she, an outside viewer would ask? None other than DJ Osborne, the daughter of aforementioned madman. But of course, that was merely one identity she possessed. She made sure that the coast was clear, before closing her blinds. With a smile, a black, ooze-like substance shot out of her skin. It wrapped around her body tightly, forming around her in the shape of a sleek suit. It harbored the design of a white spider across her chest, probably symbolic of the alien spider that had bit her so long ago. With this suit, she was no longer related to the Osborns. Instead, she became New York City's one and only Spider-Girl, Beatdown!

With her alter-ego dawned, she used her alien goo powers to turn into a pool of black liquid. In this form, she was way harder to detect by the average folk. The pool of liquid made it's way up the wall, and out of the window sills small opening, heading towards the roof of her apartment complex. Once she had made it to the top, she reverted back to her human shape.

"I can't be late...gotta meet that weirdo today!" She jumped up and down three times to psyche herself up, only to take off with a whizzing run. Hopping onto the ledge of the building, she sprang forth into the city skyline. There was no feeling on earth quite like the thrill of pulling off things only she could! She fell what felt like a few minutes, the pavement rapidly approaching, before she shot her hand out. With her fingers spread wide, black tentacles spread forth from each digit, individually looking for a surface to stick onto. When they found their mark, they gripped each surface tightly, DJ reeling her arm back in to slingshot through the city. As people took notice, they would shout all kinds of names.

"It's the Night Crawler!"

"Actually my name's Beatdown! Spread it around please!!!"

"Go, Goo Girl, Go!"

"It's Beatdown!! tell your friends!!"

"Nothing but a menace!"

"HEY SCREW YOU PAL! I'LL SHOW YOU A MENACE WHEN I KICK YOUR TEETH IN!"

"We love you Black Widow!"

"Eh...close enough..."

Couldn't they just get a consistent name going? Before she could correct anymore adoring fans, her rendezvous point was just in sight. The Brooklyn Bridge. However, before she could swing much further, she heard a large crash from the city street below. She sighed, stopping her swinging for a moment to hang onto the side of a building to scope the scene. The loud whirs of an engine could be heard in the street, the crashing of metal and glass was drawing closer. The culprit finally turned a corner, none other than Big Wheel himself! DJ sighed, hoping that the ruckus was caused by someone she could have a little more fun with. She jumped from her perpendicular perch to crash into the street below where the Wheel was treading through. There she waited, tapping her foot on the pavement with her fists on her hips. From the seat of his overblown carnival attraction, Big Wheel gave a hearty cry!

"Haha! Today's the day I defeat the infamous Spider-Wench! The name, BIG WHEEL, is gonna be all over the Daily Bugle for the next year once I wipe the pavement with you!" Spikes shot themselves out of the treads of Big Wheels big wheel, crunching through the street like cardboard. Must've been some solid stuff...did this guy get his hands on some vibranium or something? DJ could only shrug.

"You know, you should really get a Beatdown Rewards Club Membership. Your 15th asswhoopin' comes with a cushier cell!" DJ sprinted forward, almost animalistically, her arms trailing far behind her as black tentacles began to shape into giant hands. She met Big Wheel head on, firmly grasping the contraption with them, as the spikes protruded through the ooze. She winced, almost as if it were slightly uncomfortable to be impaled, but it wasn't her first rodeo. With a bit or resistance, she was able to bring the wheel to a halt. That's when a weapon was revealed on the side of the machine, spouting fire at DJ. She retreated immediately upon feeling the intense heat, every fiber of her alien DNA recoiling from the sight of the flames. Big Wheel revved up his engine again, looking to make a slime pancake out of her. The thought of a pancake gave her an idea. She began to run away, feigning fear for her life, but was leaving behind clumps of goo on the pavement that were still attached to the Spider-Girl's body. As Big Wheel ran them over they would attach themselves to the machine, and once enough had done so, DJ spread tentacles from each inky glob, snaring the machine from every crevice and direction. With his momentum almost ceased immediately, Big Wheel was ejected from his seat, his helmet colliding with the wheel in front of him. DJ used the string of goo left behind like the retraction of a tape measurer, flying through the air towards Big Wheel. Once she found an opening in his side, as he fumbled to get back into his seat, DJ crashed into him with a hard boot in the side. The man fell towards the pavement below, only to be caught with DJ's black, oozy, whip.

"You know," DJ began to snark, "You really should be wearing a seatbelt in that thing. I wouldn't have to save you and make you look so pathetic." She turned around to look at his choice of contraption. "I mean...even more pathetic than you already do." The man looked as if he were about to cry.

"Is it to late to sign up for that Rewards Club yet?"

DJ's fist clenched.

"Not at all. After signing up," She let her fist fly, "The first Beatdown's free!"

*KERPOW*

With her detour of justice now over, she had finally made her way to the top of the bridge. At the top of the building was a figure in a blue jumpsuit. Even though DJ had landed silently, it turned around to greet her with it's white mask.

"Took you long enough." He berated her, sardonically.

"Don't get your panties in a wad. You and I both know traffic in this town is absurd."

"Always the comedian. Whatever. I'm billing you extra for that. So you got the money or not?"

DJ reached into a pocket made of goo, pulling out an envelope full of one-hundred dollar bills. By it's thickness, one could easily guess that there was at least fifteen-thousand in it.

"Saved up a year for this...you better have some good intel, Taskmaster." DJ threw the envelope over, with Taskmaster catching it in kind.

"Hm." He counted the bills individually. It took a couple of minutes before he was done. "Yeah. As a matter of fact, I do. This city...this country...it's done for. You're too late, kid."

"You gotta be kidding me!? No!" DJ Exclaimed. "I thought I had more time! You're not telling me he's actually going through with it!" Her fists clenched tightly, as she began to tremble. Taskmaster looked at her display of anger blankly.

"You always hesitate to pull the trigger. You had the opportunity to kill that man more times than I have bills in this envelope. You coulda stopped Operation Dark Reign a long time ago...but you're too soft, Letdown. He's got too many powerful people working with him now. Ain't nothing your friendly neighborhood punky spidester can do about it. You're out of you're league now."

"No! You're wrong! There's still time!" DJ pulled more cash from her inside her symbiotic shoe. "What if I hire you to help me stop him!? Tonight!?"

Taskmaster stared at the handful of cash coldly.

"He thought you might ask something like that." An all too familiar sense shot up DJ's spine. In a flash, Taskmaster had pulled his pistol out on her. "Osborne's got me on retainer...no hard feelings, right?"

"You know that's not gonna hurt me." DJ growled, as she took her low fighting stance. "You should know that by now. We've done this dance way too many times."

"Oscorp upgrades." A shot rang through the air above the Brooklyn Bridge, but something was different. The sound of the bullet travelling at her rang intensely in her ear, almost driving her insane. She hesitated, as the bullet lodged itself in her chest. As it burrowed into her symbiote skin, sonic vibrations resonated from the bullet, causing her intense pain. "There's a big difference between me and you, Beatdown." Taskmaster fired another bullet, aiming for DJ's head. "I never hesitate to pull the trigger. Even if it's you." With every fiber of strength she could muster, DJ was finally able to let her Spider-Sense guide her. She hopped off the bridge before she was shot again, however, the bullet inside of her was still emitting sonic vibrations. She couldn't concentrate at all to stop herself from plummeting into the cold ocean below. Before she could even do that, a trail of smoke could be seen in the distance, followed by a laugh that haunted her dreams.

The Iron Goblin. Her Father, Harry Osborn. With a screech, he threw a Repulsor Pumpkin straight towards her.

"So...this is how it ends for the Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible Beatdown, huh? What a drag…"

But just before the bomb could make it's mark, a rip in space and time had opened beneath her. She fell into the tear, as she clutched her chest. For some reason, it felt like she was weightless, but at the same time she was descending faster than she ever had before. The tear had vanished now, her father unable to trail her wherever she was headed. Her mind was clouded by the pain as the insane visuals of the weaving web that sprawled across infinite space racked her brain. With a grunt, she plunged her hand into her chest to grab the vibrating bullet. She vomited, as the intense pain and rollercoaster ride was too much of a trippy mix for her to handle. After another deep breath, she dislodged the bullet, as it now travelled side by side with her to the opening of another tear in space. On the other side was a booming, bright city. Her eyes lit up, her body repairing itself from the trauma, as she was ejected out of the portal and onto the pavement. She woke up to the sound of the bullet next to her, it's lasts vibrations cracking the ground beneath it. With a daze, she looked around her to see a bunch of weirdos that reminded her of...her...for some reason.

"Is this spider-heaven?" She asked, before puking once more.

Edited July 9, 2023 by Mr. Hyde

TerminusAshbell · August 29, 2023

SOMEWHERE, NEO YORK, 2059, EARTH-230599

"Beep.. beep.. beep.. beep.." The cold green lines of the EKG machine echoed itself across the room with a detached, mechanical precision. Wall to wall, a thin microfilm of transparent holo-shielding cover every surface. Tangle of wires connect themselves to the myriad of machines and screens in the room, all leading themselves to the central bed, like the tentacles of some digital kraken. Clickety.. clickety clack.. clickety.

A set of nimble, thin and pale fingers tapped away at a force responsive "pseudo-hardlight" keyboard, a rare prototype not distributed outside of the scientists working with Alchemax. Covered in a simple shirt and shorts, the young boy looked at the walls with glazed eyes, head covered in a semi transparent black headset with a visor. The boy was sickly and pale, the kind of pale that makes you think of the deathbed, his pallor only contrasted with the dexterity of his digits and the rapid flashes of light from the free standing displays.

The boy was Jonathan Parker. Boy genius. Wunderkind. Boy in a bubble. Born under a star of misfortune, his shining intellect was only matched on severity by his illness, a rare immune compromised condition even the technologies of the 2050s could not cure. He doused himself in the virtual world to live, and is a true child of the net. But more importantly to the Kingpin, the boy is a hostage. The son of Kent Parker, who once worked under him, but is now possibly the only person who can destroy the plans he had carefully laid.

"Is the monitoring still remaining contrant on the boy?" Fisk asked his underling, the steel like tone every bit the Kingpin he was.

"Yes sir. Constant monitoring of the live feed and all of his connection and virtual engagements, even the hidden ones, which were well encrypted, have been under control. No communications from Kent was detected in anyways," the subordinate in the fine suit replied.

"Good. Smart as the boy may be, he is but a child. With him and the mother, after we lure Kent out of hiding and get my plans back on track, I may still not be robbed of a chief scientist yet. That prodigious intellect will replace his father well, and with an easier ease of control to boot." Kingpin replied with a steady drawl, the kind that belonged to a man with every confidence in his success.

"Then, that matter besides, what about our little... joint venture with Alchemax? That is of no less a priority than this."

"Sir, the first prototypes have been deployed live, and are functioning excellently... Notwithstanding their encounters with the SPIDERs, of course, b-but even then the performance metrics are-"

"Blasted! Those irritating bugs can never stick their noses out of my business!" Fisk interrupted, rising into a sudden anger. "If I had my way I would have them drawn and quartered like the bugs they are, for daring to defy Wilson Fisk!"

"C-certainly sir..! But the project is making major headway, and top secret research is still projecting a combat ready version 1 that can for certain take down the SPIDER!" the man almost whimpered out.

"Hmm, see to it that it remains secret, and make for certain that your bold claims are true, or not even Alchemax can prevent me from having those researchers sleeping with the fishes." Fisk spoke with finality. The man scraped and bowed, before beating a hasty retreat out of the office, with Fisk pouring himself a full glass of brandy.

ABOUT 20 METERS ABOVE SAID SOMEWHERE, NEO YORK, 2059, EARTH-230599

"Ahahahaha oh MAN, can you believe those techie clowns STILL haven't figured out that I've been feeding them looped recordings of myself and false net traffic data? Lmao, Kingpin needs a better IT Stalker Department. By the way, Haka, you owe me 20 bucks," the visored boy with the green jacket snickered.

"Grr, damnit! I figured he'd have catched on by now after three bloody months! I'll pay you at home, I dont got a wallet in my Spider-Pants," the visored man decked in bright red armor replied.

"Discussing this while we are on his building in real time is not the greatest move in my opinion," the visored woman garbed in a blue coat admonished.

"Relaxxx, Shui. I got this all sorted. We could be sticking right outside his windows posing into the cameras for a selfie and he'd scarcely notice. For a criminal mastermind, you'd think he'd hire better tech," the yellow suited visored man replied with a cool, laidback cadence.

"Are you guys all done with the bickering? I've done figuring out how we'd make the best entry into here. Stylish and smashing, preferably." The visored lady in the pink tunic said softly.

"Yeah, 's bout time. Thanks Rose." nodded Jon "Webster" Parker. Green jacket fluttering in the air, with his digital lenses on the visor locked into a wide eyed grin, he leaps off the building with one big swing of a hard light web, his four followers in tow.

"The SPIDERs are swinging right in baby!"

*CRASH*

The reinforced glass on the penthouse of Fisk Tower shattered with explosive aplomb as five super-strength backed pair of feet smashed right through it. The silence of the room was broken with an explosive entrance, leaving even the Kingpin frozen in momentary shock.

"Oh gosh, sorry about that, did anyone get hurt???... Is what I would say if it wasn't only you in the room, Big K. Being as fat as you are, any glass cut would only get us a lifetime supply of lard~," Jon quipped with a cocky ease.

"Oh man, good one, Webster. Noting that down for later." Shui noted from the ceiling as Haka gave Jon a quick fist bump.

The man of the hour, Wilson Fisk, stared distastefully into the floating shard of glass in his fresh glass of brandy, and seemed to ruminate for a single second before...

"I'm going to shove these shards in your ceaselessly flapping mouths. All five of your insufferable lot." He snarled as he crushed the glass in his hand to a pulped mess of glass pieces. Pressing a small button on the table, he took off his jacket with a slow poise.

The colossal bulk of the Kingpin shot forth explosively, gigantic fist reaching out to slam Rose into the wall! His feet slams on the ground with a deep thump, cracking the floor tiles as the human mass charge forward. With a narrowly timed jump, Rose elegantly hopped onto Kingpin's shoulder as he smashes the wooden linings of the wall open into a shower of splinters and dust. Leaping off with a dexterous bound and a swift heel stomp kick, she snips in with a quick retort.

"It's like you've never read a report on us~! Superhuman speed, strength, reflexes remember? Or is it that poor old Kingpin can't afford a Bugle subscription?"

"By the time I'm done with you, all I'll see of you lot in the Bugle is the obituary column!" Kingpin snarled back as the doors to the room burst open. "Men, take out the pests in my room!"

Henchmen after henchmen poured into the room with batons and blades and started charging towards the SPIDERs. Two luminous lines of web rocketed forth from Webster's gauntlet as it zips onto the shoulders of a larger thug, launching Webster forward into a sharp dive kick straight to his face. The thug flew backwards and knocked two more behind him over. With a hasty swing of his baton, a henchman tried to bat at Jon's head from behind, but before he could even reach midway, Haka bounded forth with animalistic speed and knocked the baton clean out of his arm with one hit, before punching the man flying into the air with the other.

Shui strung line after line of web between wall to wall, tripping the henchmen between one and another, before tying them down with big shots of web netting. In the middle of her swift movements, she grabbed a stray web flying in the air and swing Angus forth with tremendous power. The yellow-garbed SPIDER flew through the air right at Kingpin's shin, knocking the gargantuan man off balance and causing his swing at Rose to miss, before she immediately followed up with a swift side kick to his face, almost toppling him over.

"You know that both of us can play the numbers game right?" Jon cracked wise with a grin clearly visible on his techno-masked display eyes. "Well, five versus like, two to three dozen." He continued as he swiftly drove a small concussive shock blast at a particularly lanky thug. "But considering how we are..."

Haka continued, "Stronger."

Shui followed, "Smarter"

Rose chimed in, "Faster"

Angus finished with a grin, "And from the looks of it, some two hundred kilos lighter,"

"I think it's just about a fair fight, isn't it?" Jon concluded with a playful tone.

Kingpin screamed with primal, explosive fury, shaking the room with his anger.

"I'M GOING TO PULVERISE YOUR CORPSES!!! YOU WILL RUE THE DAY YOU MESSED WITH THE KINGP-" he was promptly disrupted by a green-booted kick to the face.

"Careful, big guy, that size and anger management issues doesn't bode well for the heart." Jon countered, big round swirly glasses displaying on his visor. "Luckily, Doctor Webster M.D is in the house. First treatment? Free of charge."

Several moments later, after some further destruction of the room, courtesy of Kingpin chiefly, the henchmen finds themselves all webbed up into packs against the walls and floors, while a battered and bruised Kingpin dangles loosely from the ceiling, hovering in front of his desk. His face, marred with a few bruises, scuffs and the lone bootprint, scrunched up in indignation as he hovered before the standing SPIDER squadron.

"You know, we really thought you'd be something nastier than this. What with the last rich guy who fought us being a giant green goober, and then followed by someone who was living lightning and all that," Jon started with a sly drawl. "But no, you're just some big mob dude with a bad tendency to hire template bad guy NPCs as goons. Bit disappointing tbh."

Kingpin spat forth with great distaste towards Jon, who dodged with a nonchalant ease and a half hearted shrug, turning himself to Shui. Nudging up her visor as if it was a pair of glasses, she immediately started with questionings.

"What have you been up to lately, Mister Fisk? First a trip to some middle of nowhere island off the Pacific, and then returning and celebrating by "disappearing" a whole bunch of your scientist and researcher?" She pushed with a calm but interrogative tone. "Not as subtle as you would usually do it. Maybe it's got to do with your little buddy buddy maneuvers with Alchemax?"

"You look like the smart one of the lot, if we are being generous. What makes you think I'm going to answer your little questions, huh?" Kingpin scoffed with disdain, an act that perhaps would be more convincing if he wasn't slowly rotating around on the spot while dangling.

"Oh, I was expecting you to ask that, actually," Rose followed with a titter. "See these visors? They're good to see things with, great to record things with, but they're best to stream things with! And where else would the ever popular SPIDERs stream to but the virtual world?"

Kingpin visibly tensed up, his face a seeming mix of tension and regret from not anticipating this development.

"That's right big fella, you're live right now. So quit the sour face yea? Great, big smile for the camera now. I'd recommend making it nice and bright, you don't want the papers to publish a grim mugshot eh? Maybe they'd even use our stream footage!" Angus followed with a joyful, jabbing tirade.

"You wouldn't dare-" "Yeah we would, why wouldn't we?" Haka interjected before Kingpin can complete the sentence. "What are you gonna do about it? Threaten to bore us all to death? Flop yourself on us? Funny jokes for a man hung like a hock of fatty, fatty ham."

"Oh that's a good one, Haka. You got me beat there." Jon continued, smooth as water. "We'll have you locked up for a long time, 'Kingpin'. Then maybe we can dig up enough to redress all these poor folks that's suffered under you. All that richness can do a lot, and I'm not just talking about your calorie count, lol."

Kingpin mulls in silence. Cold raging fury subsumes his eyes. But unexpectedly, his face would distort from the twisted grimace into a sly, wide grin.

"Good. GOOD!!" he boomed. "If you want me to mess you insects up so badly, I'll gladly handle you!"

*TWANG*

Simultaneously, all the five spider-people can feel it. A whining note on the back of the mind, sharper than shattered glass. Their spider-sense was screaming at them.

"Oh, so now you have the good sense to back off." Kingpin chuckled darkly.

As the five SPIDERs brace for incoming danger, Kingpin followed in a drawling tone.

"You know what's the best way to get rid of unwanted flies like you?"

"You call in a bigger spider."

Kingpin slammed his feet back against the desk, toppling over a jar onto a little red button. Immediately, the ceiling's panels folded down with a slam, and from the shadows, a black and white figure dropped down in a speedy ambush.

A sinister silence, and aura of menace, palpable and pulsing radiates across the room. As the SPIDERs pulled back from the spot where the ambusher fell, the being in question simply stood up in a slow, dramatic silence. Taut, whip like musculature stretches tightly across a tall but lithe frame, covered in a smooth and shiny material with strange, sickening touches of textures most alien. Tactical gear straps in white were laid out across the chest, resembling a stylized mockery of the spider icon. A flat, smooth face shell display showcasing large white eyes, seemingly burning at their edges with a jagged, glitchy texture. V.E.N.O.M stood up fully, the dark mirror staring straight into the eyes of Webster.

"Another one of these second hand store clones. I already beat you once, I can do it again." Webster scoffed, playing off the unsettling sensation. "Looks a little snazzier than last time though Kingpin, glad to see you gave them a fresher paintjob."

"Ohohoho, you'll be surprised, Spider boy. The ones you've seen before are naught but primitive prototypes. Before you is the real deal, ready version." Kingpin chuckled darkly, even as he still is attacked to the ceiling panels. "You will find our VENOM packs quite a punch. Playtime is over kid."

"Sic 'em!'" As Kingpin snarled, the world once again burst into a sea of motion.

With one smooth movement, a dark hard-light blade slashes through where Webster was with a violent burst of momentum, the jagged edge seemingly leaving a void of black momentarily ripped in the air. Webster barely leans back out of the way of the voidsent slash, before a swift roll to the side dodges the second arm blade swinging down on him. Webster snapped back with a stomping kick from his lowered position, but was swiftly caught by a black clawed palm. The black hand twists and starts a wide swinging motion to fling Webster towards the wall, but was met midway by Shui, holding a solid light half-staff, blocking the blow right at VENOM's elbow. As she attempted to lean into the blow, a swift foot hooked on hers from below with its jagged armor and yanked, toppling her backwards. Shui leans back on the fall and used her half staff as a pivot, swinging a wide kick towards VENOM's face but was swiftly interrupted as the beast snaps itself forward below the kick and stabbed up from below with a wicked light blade.

"Thwip!" the sound of the spun yellow light web cuts through the air. Sticking straight to the arms of VENOM, a quick yank diverts the blade away from Shui's body, before a second web pulls the black beast entirely away from her. VENOM flies through the air before his momentum was arrested by a red-clad fist. One, two, three. The bone-cracking sound of the punches resonate through the room as Haka launches his fists straight towards VENOM, its head flying back after each collision. As he lets the final gigantic swing fly however, a loud smack rings out as the punch is stopped dead, caught by a clawed palm. VENOM turns around slowly, face showing no more than cracks on the display mask, being woven together by a strange glitchy looking mesh.

Haka grunts, pushing and pulling the fist away with all his effort, but it was to little avail, as the black arm seems to swell disproportionately, exerting greater and greater force as it starts to bend the red-clad spider's wrist downwards, trying to snap them in twain. The monstrous fake SPIDER's torso also started swelling up as more force is exerted, spiky protrusions beginning to form on its skin. But as it starts to lean over with a vicious sadism, the tension in the room was broken with a deep yell from Kingpin... as he flies straight towards VENOM. The blackened form could scarcely move out of the way before it was barreled over by the huge mass of flesh, knocking it loose from Haka as it and Kingpin flew towards the last undamaged bookshelf with a loud crunch.

"Pick on someone your own damn size monster." Rose said with visible strain, having just pulled back a giant web slingshot launching Kingpin towards VENOM.

"Nice one, Rose. We all owe you one," Webster said with a grin. "Now let's see to locking down this monst-"

Jon never got to finish his sentence as an explosive, guttural roar rang out from VENOM as the now 8-foot tall monster rushes straight at him with a giant lunge, chucking Kingpin aside in one swift motion. The creature's straps and gear seems close to bursting off its body, now covered in savage, hooked spikes extending outwards. The sharp arm blade cleaves cleanly again through the air, now shaped like a giant misshapen battle-axe, delivering a promise of vicious rending. Webster slipped his head under the blade in the nick of time, two web lines launching him straight to the feet of VENOM.

"Team Plan 3, David and Goliath! Let's go!" Yelled out Webster as the SPIDER instantly nodded in response. The toppled VENOM was instantly hit with a barrage of web lines, stringing him up in the air. With one swift handspring Webster launches at VENOM from behind, the kick launching him further up. A rapid follow up from Angus pushes VENOM further up the air as a heavy uppercut collided with his chin. Shui swung in on a line with a flying kick to the creature's side, throwing it towards the wall where Rose await with a vicious side kick. As the creature spins out of control in the air, Haka flew up with a swift rotation like a red tornado, right before he delivered a savage axe kick right to VENOM's torso, slamming the creature hard to the ground with an impact that resonated throughout the room.

The SPIDERs immediately launched an extra barrage of webbing to attempt to restrain the felled beast to the floor, and one by one, each limb and extremity was webbed shut to the hard flooring.
The five collectively landed down around VENOM, near enough to take action, but far enough to evade in the event the thing wasn't down and out yet.

"Shui, gimme a run over on this thing as soon as possible. This was way stronger than the last one of these. We need to figure out how to battle it better next time, especially if there's going to be more of them." Webster said with uncharacteristic seriousness. Shui nodded a curt nod in response as a hard-light scanner sensor begin to manifest in her hands. The virtual realization ability really was tailor-made for her. "Haka, Angus, prepare for combat response if needed." Webster continued. "And lastly, Rose, help me handle wrapping up Kingpin."

"Oh, I think it may be a little late for that now, insect runt." Kingpin's voice snarled across the room. The man, though battered and bruised, glares defiantly towards the SPIDERs, in one hand a strange rock covered all over in lines and runic patterns, and in the other, a strange mechanical device that seems to thrum with a prismatic energy.

"If I cannot beat you now, I will simply send you far far away! I will never have to see any of you disgusting bugs again!" Kingpin's voice raise to a head as he puts the strange relic and the device together. A multicolored blast of energy rips through the room, making the lights flicker in and out. The room begin to seemingly glitch and distort, prismatic fractals in aberrant colors of reality that look similar yet foreign race across the room like cracks in a panel of glass.

The pulse of power knocked all the beings in the room back, freeing VENOM and toppling the SPIDERs. But just as the SPIDERs prepared for a two ended fight, the screeching siren ringing out across the building seemed to lock VENOM down in place, the synthetic looking black trying to rip away from the body of the host, a non-descript looking shaved man. Keeping a note of the strange separation for later, Webster again turns his eyes towards the strange device that seems to be ripping reality around it asunder. The pulsing and fractals begin to get more and more intense, as the broken stained glass of the world seem to cycle through every color of the kaleidoscope. Lines and bubbles of void black spew out from the gap being torn in the dimensions, a twisted, dangerous beauty that rendered him unable to pull his eyes away. His spider sense was screaming, more than it ever had done before, so much so that he could only snap out of the trance via a shattering scream.

And then another, and then another, and then another, and then another. A cacophonous quintet of screams rip through the air, drawing Webster's attention away from the device.

All of his friends and fellow SPIDERs were screaming, fading in and out of reality. Their bodies seemingly glitching and tearing away at the edges. It looked like how they would return to the Virtual World, but with a sinister, forceful twist. Each part of them disappearing seems to be torn from existence, forcefully sequestered away. The screams of pain only further reinforce the nature of the vanishment. From the corner of his eye, VENOM also seems to fly free from his host body, screaming in a glitched, feedback-like haze of pain.

"Oh no." Webster exclaimed. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no. I gotta fix this. I gotta fix this. Think, Jon. THINK, YOU IDIOT. YOUR FRIENDS ARE DYING!!!" his voice screeched through his mind, even as he powerlessly tried to pull his comrades towards him with webs.

The lines simply phased through them like they were not even there.

The dissonant, booming sound of the device comes to a zenith. He can feel it in the air, something ripping wide open, pulling him in.

With one last desperate web shooting forwards, trying to cling on to anything, Jon felt it made contact with something. But it was useless, as whatever it was gave way and swung free.

The dimensions behind him ripped fully asunder, and with an explosive boom, Webster was slung into the Spider-verse. The portal vanished, leaving only an unconscious Kingpin and a barely clothed, shaved man.

SOMEWHERE, METRO CITY, UNKNOWN TIME, UNKNOWN UNIVERSE

Jon felt like he had just been dragged by a rampaging bull across a rainforest on a tightwire, slamming his head on every last root and tree. An apt metaphor for unplanned multiversal travel, as he would later assess.

Opening his groggy eyes through partially cracked goggles, Jon opened his eyes to a strange new environment. Everything looked... so old. Like a time capsule lost to time and re-opened before his own eyes. A metropolitan city that looked like it was built and belonged much earlier in the late 20th century, the kind he'd only ever seen in history text books from a time before the Virtual World...

The Virtual World! Jon immediately tried to pull on his connection to the world online, only to find a strange static disconnecting him from a vital part of his existence. Panicked, he immediately checked his wrist mounted computers to find them still functional, and temporarily capable of creating a pocket virtual space. Enough yet for some webbing and small trinkets if he needs it, but it won't last long. He needs to find some way to fix this.

But perhaps before that, it would be wise to figure out where... and maybe when he was. This isn't his home turf after all, and he would do well to respect that. This city with its ancient architecture and its... TV headed people and its...

Spider-suited person riding a motorcycle?

That can't be... or could it? Even as he ruminates on the strangeness of it all, Jon let a web line loose as he swung towards the strange happening, trying to find out what's going on.

As focused as he was in the confusion of this new world, he remained unaware of the black form slinking around in the back of his shadows and the glitchy white eyes manifesting on its alien texture. VENOM had come along with him.

Saikazo · September 9, 2023

Joanna slowly crossed the street, making sure to look both ways first like a responsible adult. Unknown to her, that didn't really matter. Drivers in this dimension were very respectful of pedestrians. After all, you never knew who could break your car with their bare hands.

It didn't take long for her to reach the restaurant, which looked like a classic Japanese hall. Its traditional Japanese architecture stuck out like a sore thumb against the rest of Metro City's modern skyline. At the top of the large door was a sign written in Japanese. Joanna couldn't read it, but she could easily assume it was the name of the restaurant.

Stepping inside on the hardwood floor, she could easily pick out some details. In the very center of the building was a giant ring, elevated off the floor. Two large men with builds that reminded her of the Kingpin slammed against each other. Each one did their best to push the other out of the ring.

Surrounding the ring were a bunch of low tables, with cushions beneath them. Customers sat on the cushions, enjoying food from giant bubbling pots at the center of their tables. Their loud cheers showed that they were enjoying the match in front of them.

As Joanna was taking in the sights, a large man approached her. He was bigger than others, his face was fiercer, covered in red kabuki paint. He wore than the others, having a black yukata on, although he only put the left shoulder on, exposing his massive chest. He looked over Joanna, cupping his chin as he did. He let out a hum as he nodded.

"Well, well, lost your first fight around these parts, have you?" The man asked. "That's always a shock for newcomers here at Metro City. Well, there's only one solution for that!" He let out a hearty laugh as he clapped his hands together. "A nice serving of Chanko stew!" With the most powerful gentle push she ever felt, the mysterious sumo wrestler herded Joanna to a table. "Go on, eat up! Enjoy the show!" In front of her seat was an empty bowl and a spoon, and a full pot of this "chanko stew". The man folded his arms and laughed, obviously pleased with how everything was going.

What a strange little restaurant.

Rhino Ruler let out a groan as he picked himself out of the rubble. Looking around, he noticed he was in a junkyard. Not only that, his massive heft had crushed some of the cars in the lot. "Ugh... what did that Spider-Rider do to me...?" He muttered as he stood up. He rubbed his head, looking around. The junk yard reminded him of his home. But it couldn't be his home.

There was no giant Rhino spray painted on the side of building. He walked forward, crushing cars under his massive weight. He didn't notice the punk looking people hanging around the junkyard, and they didn't want to provoke him, so they kept their distance.

Rhino Ruler looked around, sighing to himself. Now, where was that Spider-Rider?

Looking to the sky, he saw something in the far distance that pissed him off. There was someone swinging on a web towards a man on a glider.

There was only one person that could be.

"GOBLIN FLYER!!!!" Rhino Ruler roared at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing throughout the entire city. "TODAY WAS MY DAY! HOW DARE YOU TRY TO FINISH HIM INSTEAD OF LETTING ME?!" A member of the Evil Eight trying to kill steal Spider-Rider? That was beyond rude. Rhino Ruler didn't have the words to express how angry he was. He looked around, seeing the trashed cars and getting a wonderfully horrible idea.

He picked up one of the cars, and with all his might, hurled it at the two figures in the sky. His aim was a little off, but that was okay.

"I'll get the thing on the thing..." He muttered as he picked up another car and chucked it at the two. With every car he threw, the closer he got to hitting the two...

Spider-Rider kept his eyes on the road as he navigated the roads. It wasn't easy though. There was several police blockades he had to go around, and several roads were just littered with wrecked cars. What was with this dimension? Everyone just seemed to treat this as normal.

His body stiffened as he heard the Rhino Ruler's voice bellow. No, did Goblin Flyer follow them there? Or was it just this dimension's Goblin? Either way, it wasn't good.

Suddenly, he noticed the sun was being blocked by something. Looking up, he saw, perhaps too late, a car hurtling down from the sky towards him. He didn't have time to swerve out of the way, or to web it up. Even if he sped up, the only thing that would accomplish was crashing his head right into the metal. A horrifying end to be sure, and almost anything else could just get him horribly injured.

There was only one way he was going to be able to get out of harm's way.

He spun his motorcycle to the side, forcing himself to wipe out. He winced as he heard his motorcycle make a loud, horrible scrapping sound as it slid across the pavement. Thankfully, his suit protected himself from road rash, and staying low to the ground let him barely slip under the car before it hurtled into the road like a meteor. Quickly, he spun around, firing out his webs. The second the car hit the ground, he webbed it up, making sure it didn't bounce into the distance and hurt more people.

He came to a stop, sighing in relief as he laid on the ground to catch his breath. That was too close for comfort. However, he couldn't rest long.

More cars began to rain from the sky, threatening the people below. Gritting his teeth, Spider-Rider got up, running up the walls and firing webs, trying to make nets to catch the cars. However, more and more cars were coming, and one singular spider wouldn't be able to catch them all.

yui · September 29, 2023

After the showing that was her getting thoroughly walloped by what seemed like a perfectly ordinary person, anger issues aside, Joanna made a point to be careful crossing the street. If this kind of lunacy was possible in this world by someone with their bare hands, who knew what they were capable of with tons of steel at their command? Fortunately for her, between her spider-sense and the people of Metro City being surprisingly respectful drivers, she could have gotten across the street unscathed with her eyes closed and her hands behind her back if she really wanted to. She didn't particularly want to. She just wanted to get into this place that she assumed was a restaurant, despite the architecture being somewhat foreign to her, and as she got closer, she doubled down on that assumption based on the chicken-y smell coming from within.

When she stepped inside, it was something much more like what the Joanna from about ten minutes ago would have expected when she heard the words "sent to another world". The inside of this restaurant was unlike anything she'd ever seen, though a restaurant it certainly was, based on all the food being doled out. Mostly soup, by the looks of it. In fact, only soup! What seemed like some sort of wrestling was going on in the center, with two big guys trying to push each other out of a circle. Like tug of war, but backwards, and with much larger participants. Joanna was a practiced boxer, but she loved to watch two guys throw down every Monday night just as much as the next person.

It was then that she was met with yet another big guy. He dressed similar to the men in the ring, but with a bit more clothes. Between that, the red face paint, and him just being bigger in stature than the others, Joanna could only assume this guy was the boss of the other men or something like that. He kind of reminded her of Kingpin, but trading some of Kingpin's sheer size for having hair.

"Well, well, lost your first fight around these parts, have you? That's always a shock for newcomers here at Metro City. Well, there's only one solution for that! A nice serving of Chanko stew!" With the most powerful gentle push she ever felt, the mysterious sumo wrestler herded Joanna to a table. "Go on, eat up! Enjoy the show!"

"Huh, wait, what's chanko?"

As Joanna found herself herded into a table, sitting down on a cushion in clear view of the sport of the day, she soon figured out just what chanko was. Some kind of stew, and 100% the source of that chicken smell Joanna detected earlier. It just so happened she was rather fond of chicken, and a few other things that seemed to be in there, too! "Wow, lotta protein in there," Joanna commented, getting a couple scoops of the stew from the center of the table and putting it in the bowl before her. Then there was the chopsticks. Joanna had used these a few times before; while she was usually more of a pizza type, some nights she just really wanted some Chinese takeout, and sometimes while on the clock as Spider-Girl she just happened to be in Chinatown at around lunchtime.

"Hold on, how much do I gotta pay for a seat here?" Joanna asked.

Wait. Is my money even any good here!?

"How about you eat first and we'll figure that out later?"

"...good idea." This was a restaurant after all. You typically paid for those after eating. That guy from earlier must have hit her harder than she thought to get her all scrambled up like that. Joanna took her first bite of the stew before her, and was immediately impressed! This wasn't something she'd eat every day, but "chanko" was definitely going on her list of delivery foods to order at night, if such places did delivery. Gesturing toward the two big guys in the ring with her chopsticks, Joanna asked "So what's going on in there? I've seen two big guys try to pin each other to the floor, I've seen two big guys punch the hell out of each other, but two big guys pushing each other out of a circle's new to me."

"Oh? Don't tell me. You don't know what sumo is?"

"I can't say I do."

"Oh ho, well, you came to the right place then, little lady!" The man laughed heartily as he folded his arms over his chest. "Sumo wrestling's a pure sport! There ain't any weapons in sumo. Hell, there's barely any clothes! Sumo is pure, undiluted martial arts, plain an' simple! A meeting of muscle for ring supremacy!"

That explanation was... technically an answer. But it didn't really answer Joanna's question. She could figure out the objective more or less by watching those two sumo go at it, but that a quick glance at the ring was more helpful than this guy's enthusiastic explanation was a little disheartening. Still, she just didn't have it in her to deny his enthusiasm. So she gave the big man a nod, a smile, and responded cheerfully.

"I see! Sounds like a pretty tough business to get into, if you want to be the one doing the wrestling."

She had to admit, she did like the atmosphere here. A show of martial prowess center-stage, a bowl of good food in front of her. ...was this how people at gladiator shows felt? Minus all the bloodshed?

TerminusAshbell · January 13

“Hmm... Yeah, definitely not in Neo York anymore, this place is wild…!”

Jon “Webster” mused to himself as he quickly slung line after glowing line of webbing between the walls of the city’s stone, steel, and mortar buildings.

“All of these building styles went out of date ages ago! I’ve only ever seen them in games! So either this place is really into retro displays, or I’m in for some wild stuff.” Jon exclaimed, the digital SPIDER eyes on his mask snapping into a quizzical squint. “Could I be trapped in a game? Electro’s meddling maybe? But nah, she should be contained and getting treatment right now, and Minny isn’t into historical games like these…”

As Jon continued his meditations on the nature of the world mid swing, the spider clad motorcyclist sped up as he swerved around a corner, catching sight of this, Jon hastily sped up with his swings, web supplies dwindling at an even higher rate. Swinging past two city blocks, he turned the corner and refocused his eyes on catching the spider rider… Only to discover a two ton ball of metal, glass, and plastic screaming through the air towards him
Hastily whipping a line to the side of the nearby building with his free non-swinging hand, Webster yanked with superhuman force to throw himself against the building’s walls, narrowly avoiding being splattered like a bug.

“Haka, Shui! Go grab that-” Webster shouted out the rapid command before pulling himself back in check. His friends aren’t here to help him now, he’s got to do this on his own. Pushing the melancholic thought into the back of his mind, Webster leapt off the building, diving in after the falling ball of automotive debris and took action. Grabbing a holo-web grenade from his virtual pocketspace, he chucked the device that promptly cracked open in midair, wrapping its brightly colored net around the ball of metal and plastic. Slinging out a compound line to the two steel supports of the skyscrapers on both sides he leaned forward to gain more speed as he thwipped a final web towards the now balled up debris. Tugging on the line with all his might, Webster linked the three web lines together, making a makeshift restraint for the car. As the car continues its trajectory downwards, the lines begin to pull taut and stretch, arresting the car’s momentum, stopping it from landing on the ground and crushing the pedestrians beneath.

“Whew” Jon thought as he spun a final few lines to secure the now immobile car, hanging four stories above the ground. “Much harder doing it solo… But where did this hunk of junk come from?”

The answer came to him almost immediately in the form of the screaming roars coming from a gargantuan man clad in rhinoceros themed garb, whose contribution to noise pollution is currently only matched by the air pollution he’s causing by throwing up more cars into the city airspace.

Internal lenses behind the SPIDER mask auto zoomed in on the man, revealing his appearance in great clarity to Jon, obviously showing his status as a new costumed menace of some kind. Turning his glance towards the spider clad man on a motorcycle, and calculating for his own internal web supplies, Jon knew he could only either chase the man… or have just about enough webbing to approach the maddened mechanical mammal mimicking menace. With one last turn towards the now dubbed “Rhino-man” and the rider each, Jon sighed as he made up his mind.

“I can’t involve some bystander in that... It’s gonna be one of those days huh.” Webster reached out for the web line still attached to the car, fully stretched.

“Well, here goes nothing.” with one last big sigh, Webster cut the thread. The two lines binded to the skyscrapers, currently pulled tight and stretching under the pressure immediately contracted, releasing the great elastic force. The energy yanked the thread that Webster was holding, catapulting him upwards into the air, flying past a crowd of flocking pigeons.

“Ah, crud! Birds!” Webster said with a little grin on his face even as the pigeon feathers still strewn across his facemask. Casting a line of holo-web to the building ahead, he launches himself with abandon towards the direction of the Rhino-man.

“The SPIDER is swinging into action, baby!! Whoo!!”

Chaos Sonic · January 15

"Ayyyyy Gobby! Been a bit! What's the plan this time? Drag me into a new dimension, attempt to squash the spider? Ooooh! Or are you planning to open that Goblin themed restaurant you've always wanted??" The shout came from a nearby water tower that stood atop a building, almost level with where Oren hovered upon his glider.

Spider-Goblin pivoted in the air, instantly locking onto the target. Another Spider-Man. Lowering himself into a crouch, he clutched the front of his glider and rocketed toward the new arrival, "Can't say this was my doing. That mean you're from another world as well, Spider-Man?" Despite his ostensibly cordial greeting, Oren had already pulled out and armed a pumpkin bomb, just in case.

"..." Multi-Threader looked inquisitively at the "Goblin", tilting his head and squinting slightly. "...you're not Norman, I take it. Let's see, Goblin Glider...check. Pumpkin Bombs...check. Weird spider themed outfit? Yeah, you definitely ain't Norman. The spider theme would definitely clash with his fairy/goblin totem shtick." He rubbed his chin, looking directly at the stranger. "Also...Spider-Man? That sounds kinda...bland. The Magnificent Multi-Threader, at your service." he gave a bit of a bow.

Oren narrowed his eyes at this 'Multi-Threader' who seemed comfortable abandoning everything about Parker's moniker but the hyphen. Hell, I don't even think he has a shocking clue who Parker is. The spider spoke of fairies and totems, which Oren immediately discounted as some kind of nonsense superstition from Multi-Threader's native world.

The strange spider gave a bow, and as he brought his head back up the two spider-men made eye contact (albeit through lenses) for the first time. It was then that Oren felt it. His spider-sense, or Arachnofrequency as Richards had once called it, was buzzing in a way he had never felt before. He could feel it bouncing off of and interacting with a similar signal coming from this strange person. In a second, he could feel how different the worlds they came from must be, and at the same time felt how the two young men were the same.

"You're... Like me." | BGM | "You're... Like me?"

Multi-Threader was surprised, feeling the same sort of feeling he felt while fighting Mysterio, and yet...it was bouncing off and interacting with this "Goblin". "...wait...there's others like me? Er...like us?"

"Seems so." Oren stood up straight, disarming his pumpkin bomb and dropping it back into his pack. "Spider-Goblin, by the way. Think there are many more of us here?"

"Spider...Goblin..." Multi-Threader had that name roll off his tongue, shaking his head slightly. "Yeah, that's a combination that I didn't think would work...buuuuut that would explain why you're rocking the Goblin's tech." he shrugged, before looking around. "Honestly, if I had to guess, I'd say there might be. This Manhattan lookin' location of Metro City may actually hold some more answers about it."

"It's something of a hand-me-down. Trust me, the name's got some baggage where I'm from, too." Looking out over the city, Spider-Goblin rolled his shoulders, culminating the motion in a clap in front of him. "You got that buzz from me too, right? I'm thinking if we tune our arachnofrequencies together we might be able to pick up the locations of any others like us. You and I make for two antennae, with a bit of math we should be able to track any others down easily enough."

"Archnofrequencies? So that's what you call it?" Multi-Threader asked, chuckling some. "May have to add that to my lexicon now...in any case, you're right. We may be able to get our Spider-Senses to link up with others, iiiiiiif there are any others." Multi-Threader was going to suggest a pair of particularly tall buildings to potentially hold up for the moment and see if they could potentially find more like them…cause if there were two, perhaps there were more. It was pretty sound logic if anything. But the key of all this was: he WAS going to do that. The original plan was thrown out the window, because of one thing.

"GOBLIN FLYER!!!! TODAY WAS MY DAY! HOW DARE YOU TRY TO FINISH HIM INSTEAD OF LETTING ME?!"

Whipping his head around, Multi-Threader found the source of the yelling: a man clad in rhino garb and paraphernalia. This looked like the Rhino, all things considered, buuuuuuuut his Rhino from his universe came from…technically was a full on man turned rhino. Crazy how that worked, but even still. Oh, there was also the fact that the cars were being launched their way.

“Alright, I’m going to take it that this ain’t a friend of yours.” he chuckled, cracking his knuckles a bit. “Let’s do a quick split up between the two of us. I’ll keep Aleksei occupied, you head to those tall skyscrapers over there…wait…crap, is he even Aleksei? I shouldn’t assume.” Multi-Threader was about to leap into action, but was stopped and tossed a little radio at him. “A radio, that’ll definitely keep us in contact. Sayonara for now, ‘Gobby’.” he gave a two-fingered salute as he jokingly called Spider-Goblin this before leaping off the water tower, narrowly dodging another car as he swung towards the rampaging nutjob.

“Bonjourno!” he laughed, shooting a web right into the Rhino Ruler’s face. “Allow me to properly introduce myself…the Magnificent Multi-Threader, at your service!”

"Wait, which are you?" Rhino Ruler roared as the webs covered his eyes. "You sound too girly to be Scarlet-Rider, but too manly to be Ghost-Rider!" He swung blindly at the air, trying to swat Multithreader like a fly. "Eh, it doesn't matter! GIVE ME SPIDER-RIDER!"

"Scarlet-Rider?” It definitely checked out that this wasn’t the same Rhino he was used to. Never even heard of a Scarlet-Rider. However… “Ghost-Rider? We talking about the one with the flames on his head?" Multi-Threader dodged the blindly swinging Rhino-man. "And girly? That's just rude!" He swung around towards Rhino Ruler's back and stuck to him. "Now how about we just take a deep breath and calm you and your well defined suit muscles down?"

"Calm down? Calm down?!" Rhino Ruler tried to reach Multithreader, but the hero was just out of his reach. "Even if you're some new Spider, you know the rules, and so do I! A full commitment is what I was thinking of! I won't get satisfaction from crushing other guys!"

"Wait...are you..." Multi-Threader was silent for a moment. He almost had a dumbfounded look on his face…or, at least from what one would be able to tell on a masked vigilante. "...did you just Rick Roll me?"

"... Oh! That's a great idea!" Rhino Ruler smirked as he fell to his stomach. He began to roll around, trying to crush the spider on his back. "I dunno who Rick is, but I shoulda rolled a long time ago!"

"Me and my big mo-WOAH!" Multi-Threader yelped as he immediately jumped off landing on the wall of a nearby building. "Sheesh, and I thought Mysterio ripping off both Mick Jagger and Elivs was bad...you're just a plain ol' hater of music from the sounds of it."

"Music is for the weak!" Rhino Ruler growled as he rolled around. "It's for people with delicate fingers that strum strings, or... people without super strength that don't break the drums... or..." He paused, laying on his back as he suddenly heard a new voice cry out.

“The SPIDER is swinging into action, baby!! Whoo!!”

"Another new Spider?!" Rhino struggled to get back on his feet, tugging at the webs at his eyes again. "Where is... SPIDER-RIDER?!"

A new Spider entered the fray, so his general assumption was correct. Seems like the spiders attract one another. Ooooooh, that would be a great hook for a novel! Chosen warriors found and brought together by a singular common factor... Multi-Threader thought, glancing down at his hand, seeing a spider seeming to look like it was writing down notes. "Mental notes, for sure. Gotta love the mental link." he nodded, looking in the direction of this new Spider. "Buenos días! Or would it be Buenas noches? Can't tell with this locale...came to help with the Rhino over here?"

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Outcasts of the Spider-Verse (IC/PG-13/Accepting)

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