It was New Year's Eve. I should have been out with my girlfriend, jumping from building to building and seeing New York in a way only we could. I should have been introducing her to May and Ben — we were finally serious, so it felt like the right time. I should then have been introduced to Felicia's mom, if she was even home. I should have been doing a great many things right now, but instead I was here, at work. Damn the Fantastic Four.
"Just so you know, I hate you all," I grumbled as we gathered in Reed's lab.
"Oh come on, Pete, would you rather be here or out there in the cold?" Johnny asked with a sly grin.
"I would rather be with my girlfriend, enjoying a wonderful night in together," I growled. "Not sitting on my ass in Reed's lab!"
"You aren't just sitting on your ass," Reed argued as he pored over several calculations. "You are waiting for me to show you something extremely important."
"Right," I grumbled. "I forgot. By the way, you still haven't told us what that something is!"
"Patience is a virtue," Reed grinned.
"You try saying that when instead of doing math you could be kissing a hot blonde," I growled.
"Well, if that's all you want, I'm sure that can be arranged," Johnny threw his arm around me and wiggled his eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes. "Sorry, Johnny, but your sister's a bit too old for me —"
"— Hey!" Sue yelled out.
"— But thanks for the suggestion. You're a real friend," I grinned.
"Hey! That's not what I meant!" Johnny growled as flames began forming along his skin. "And don't talk about my sister like that!"
"Oh, calm down, kid," Ben patted him on the back, dampening Johnny's flames. "You shouldn't be dishing it out if you can't take it."
I nodded. "Yup. What he said."
"Grr, fine," Johnny turned away, arms folded in irritation.
"Oh, Peter, you don't think I'm pretty?" Sue asked, batting her eyes in mock innocence.
"I never said that. I just said you were too old for me," I smiled. "I'm fifteen. I won't be legal for another three years, Sue."
She chuckled. "But really, Peter — when are we going to meet this girl you're always talking about? Felicia, was it?" She smiled. "You really should bring her over sometime."
I shrugged. "Yeah, maybe. I just need to make sure she's comfortable with the whole superhero thing. She seems okay, but I know deep down she's still a little shaken up."
"Wait, what?! You told her you're Spider-Man?!" Johnny yelled. "Dude! What the hell?!"
I shrugged. "What? I like her so I told her. She knows how to keep a secret. Besides, it would be strange to keep such a huge part of my life hidden from her if we're serious."
"That's...very mature of you, Peter," Reed admitted from across the lab. "Very thoughtful."
"Thanks," I smiled.
"Do you have a picture?" Ben asked.
"Oh, yeah," I took out a holographic display and switched it on. The picture of us at the movie theatre on our first date appeared. "Ta-da."
"Woah!" Johnny whistled. "Damn, how the hell did you score that?!"
I smiled. "Simple. I'm awesome."
"She's very beautiful," Reed nodded. He noticed Sue looking at him and quickly added, "Congratulations, Peter."
"Treat her right, kid. A girl like that is rare," Ben said gravely — from experience or not, I wasn't sure.
"No, seriously, Peter — how? How did you manage this?" Johnny growled. "I mean, I'm a superhero and you're just a scrawny kid!"
I shrugged. "A scrawny kid with a charming smile."
"Yeah, right!"
"Oh, I don't know about that — he seems quite charming to me," Sue winked.
I immediately blushed. "I — I, ah, thanks?"
"Yes! Pay up, Reed!" Sue grinned.
"What? Oh, for God's sake, Peter!" Reed pulled out a ten-dollar note and slapped it into Sue's outstretched hand. "Would it kill you to not be so damn endearing?!"
"Did you two have a bet about whether she could embarrass me?" I asked in disbelief.
"Ah, no, that's not important right now. What is important is that I'm ready," Reed announced, stepping back from the machine he had built in the middle of the lab. It was enormous — a doorway constructed from three thick stone-like slabs forming an arch. The far side was sealed, but the machinery framing it made it perfectly clear this was no ordinary door.
"Never thought I'd be seeing this thing again," Johnny sighed.
"You and me both, kid," Ben growled as we all stepped up beside Reed to look at it.
"So, to the one member of this group who has absolutely no idea what's going on — can someone fill me in?" I asked.
"This is a version of the dimensional teleporter that gave us our powers," Reed explained. "I've adjusted the settings so that we can't actually pass through — we can only observe the world on the other side."
"Okay...and the reason you built this is...?" I prompted.
"Our powers originate from an alternate dimension," Reed explained. "But without studying that dimension, I can't understand exactly how it happened to us."
I whistled. "So what are we waiting for? Fire it up!"
Reed nodded. "Right." He went to the panel and began working at the controls. A purple sheen materialised in the doorway and an image slowly took form.
It was a barren, dead landscape that had no business existing anywhere in the natural order of things. The sky was dark and scattered with exploding supernovae and the looming silhouettes of nearby planets. It looked like a universe in its death throes — and in a way, I supposed it was.
"Damn," my voice shook slightly. "You guys actually went in there? Just...damn."
"I thought the same thing," Ben grumbled. "Not a pleasant place."
"Wait, is this the same spot we landed?" Johnny asked, narrowing his eyes at the screen.
"Yes, I believe it is," Sue said in surprise. Her eyes widened. "Look, Johnny — that's your footprint!"
She pointed at the screen. Sure enough, there was a human footprint pressed into the alien soil. A human footprint. In another dimension. Yeah. This was absolutely insane.
I slowly backed away. I didn't like being only a few steps from another world with no way back. One stumble and I'd be lost. Forever.
"Peter, are you alright?" Reed asked.
"Fine, just...don't want to risk it, you know," I gulped. "One wrong move and I'm trapped in another dimension."
"Relax, Reed said it was blocked. You can't accidentally walk into another dimension, Peter," Johnny waved dismissively.
"Technically, I said I blocked the passage, but energy from that side can still be received — nothing solid, of course, just stray forms of energy," Reed clarified.
"R-right," I gulped.
"Now then, let's begin. I'm going to calibrate the machine to detect any energy signatures that cross through the portal. Johnny, can you hand me that —"
The alarms erupted. The entire building went into security lockdown.
"What's going on?!" I asked.
"The scanner's detected something coming straight for us!" Sue shouted, rushing to a monitor and typing rapidly.
"Wait, what?! What's coming at us?!" Johnny asked.
"This," Sue pulled up an image of the New York skyline. I narrowed my eyes at a cluster of glowing figures approaching fast. The image zoomed in. The lights were robots — dressed unmistakably in the armour of everyone's favourite megalomaniac dictator.
"Doom. He's coming," I said, narrowing my eyes. "He's after the portal!"
"Possibly," Reed began typing commands into the panel attached to the portal. "I'm trying to shut it down from here but it won't accept my clearance code! Sue!"
"On it!" she yelled, immediately beginning to hack into her own servers. "Something's wrong, it's — damn it! He's inside the system and he's locked us out!"
"Can't we just pull the plug?!" I asked.
"No, it requires too much power to run safely on the main grid, so I put it on a separate digital power source," Reed cursed under his breath.
"What can we do?" Ben asked.
"It's simple," Johnny stepped forward, grinning as he ignited. "We kick his ass!"
"Johnny's right," Sue nodded.
"He is?" Ben and I asked simultaneously.
"I am?" Johnny blinked.
"Ben, Peter, Johnny — go out there and hold them off for as long as you can," Reed instructed. "Sue and I will work on stopping the portal. I'll tear the machine apart with my bare hands if I have to. Go!"
"Right," Ben nodded, heading for the door at a steady run.
I pulled off my shirt and trousers, revealing my suit underneath. I took out my mask and pressed it to my face — it exploded outward, hugging my features before snapping into place as a full helmet. I slipped on my gauntlets and slammed my fist against my chest, activating the arc reactor as black webs crawled across the costume's surface.
I reached the nearest window and jumped out, throwing a web line to swing toward the approaching squad of robots.
"Spider!" Johnny flew up alongside me. "You web them, I'll burn them!"
"Deal!" I yelled as we charged into the swarm.
I swung upward and fired two compressed web shots that exploded into tangled nets the moment they made contact. Johnny followed up with twin blasts of fire, incinerating them. Two down, roughly forty to go.
"Terminate with extreme prejudice," came the flat, mechanical voices of the Doom Bots as they opened fire with green energy beams.
My spider-sense kicked into overdrive. I dodged quickly, landing on the back of one of the robots.
"Hey there, big guy!" I yelled, placing one palm on the back of its head and one on its chest. "Bye there, big guy!" I snapped my fingers forward to trigger the repulsors in my palms, blasting two clean holes through its frame.
I jumped off and landed on the next one, dismantling them one by one. Then two Doom Bots came from either side, locking their arms around me and hauling me into the air — clearly trying to drop me from height. With no real alternative, I pressed a palm against each robot's chest and fired repulsor beams strong enough to shred them both.
I went into free fall, but landed on yet another Doom Bot, which immediately attempted to choke me.
"These things are everywhere!" Johnny yelled as he blasted another robot out of the sky — then a second one snuck up behind him and hit him square in the back. Johnny's flames vanished and he plummeted.
"Johnny!" I roared. I turned on the Doom Bot responsible and drove my fist through its chest, ripping out its power core. Then I leaped back and swung down, shooting out web lines between buildings below to create a wide net.
Johnny landed in it. I crawled down to check on him. His heartbeat was steady — a bit erratic, but stable. I looked up. The Doom Bots were ignoring us now, heading directly for the Baxter Building.
I didn't want to leave Johnny like this, but I had to. I jumped off the web net and landed on a rooftop. I shot a web line around a passing Doom Bot and yanked, dragging it down and smashing it into the roof surface.
It got back up, apparently unconcerned with me, and turned to fly away. Sassy robot. I jumped on it before it could go anywhere, seized it by the head, and pulled with everything I had. I heard the groan of stressed metal straining to hold together before something finally gave way — and the head came off.
I tossed it aside and looked up. The remaining robots had surrounded the top floors of the Baxter Building, positioning themselves equidistantly around it. They spread their arms wide. A green pulse of energy began seeping from their bodies, encasing the building in a shimmering field.
"Damn it!" I was too late.
I swung to the Baxter Building and tried to push through the energy shield — it was too strong. Not even a repulsor blast made a dent. I tried approaching from inside the building, but the shield appeared to pass through solid stone without cutting it, somehow.
Then I heard the shriek of a subsonic jet. I looked up. A sleek black one-man aircraft came screaming toward the Baxter Building. I focused on the cockpit — green armour, metallic mask.
Doom. But before I could act, the jet slipped cleanly through the green force field and landed on the roof of the building, untouched.
I cursed. Doom was inside. I needed to get in there.
I stared at the building. Brute force hadn't worked. Maybe I needed to think my way through this.
Then I was struck by it — the shield didn't block the building's physical structure. Why not? Had Doom calibrated it to ignore the concrete? That was...actually ingenious.
I crawled up to one corner of the Baxter Building and hammered the same point over and over until the wall began to crack. The broken section of concrete was massive. I grabbed it and tore it free, webbing it to my back, and climbed up to where a shield generator hovered nearby.
I slowly approached the energy field, then extended the concrete ahead of me and watched it pass through unharmed. Doom had calibrated the field to ignore inorganic stone. I pulled the slab past the five or so inches of energy, and the moment I was on the other side I tore the concrete away and climbed through a broken window.
Inside, I was greeted by a graveyard of broken Doom Bots. Ben had clearly made his presence known.
I ran past the wreckage and reached Reed's lab. Ben was knocked unconscious, half-buried in a cracked wall.
"Ben!" I called, crouching beside him. He was breathing shallowly but steadily. I moved into Reed's lab — it was completely destroyed. The dimensional portal was throwing arcs of electricity in every direction.
"You cannot stop me, Richards! Doom will have his prize!" Doom bellowed at Reed and Sue, who stood between him and the portal.
"Not likely, Victor," Reed growled, enlarging his fists.
"Fool! You cannot hope to stop Doom!" He snapped his fingers and Doom Bots came crashing through the ceiling. "Destroy him!"
Reed and Sue moved to engage — then I decided to help things along. I dropped from the rafters and drove a repulsor blast into the nearest robot's chest.
I landed in front of Doom and faced him. "I'll take the robots! You get the tin man with no heart!"
"You again," Doom snarled. "I'll skin you alive for this, boy!"
"Touchy, much?" I threw myself sideways as a Doom Bot tried to fry me with its energy beam. I landed on the wall and launched off it, taking the robot down with a rapid flurry of blows.
"Don't do this, Victor! You don't know what's on the other side!" Sue cried as she raised a force field.
"No, Susan — that is where you are wrong. Doom knows exactly what is on the other side! It is power!" He thrust both hands forward, unleashing a sustained blast of electricity that hammered against Sue's shields, cracking them steadily.
"Oh hell!" I'd completely forgotten he could do that.
I jumped away as a Doom Bot drove its fist at my chest and landed on the far wall. Two more charged at once. I waited until the last possible moment before vaulting clear — they tore through the wall and slowly turned to find me, which was the exact moment I pressed both repulsors against their faces.
"Goodnight," I growled, blasting their heads clean off.
"Ah!" Sue cried out as Doom finally broke through her shield, sending her flying across the room. She hit the floor hard and didn't get up.
"Sue!" Reed roared. His eyes narrowed on Doom. "You bastard!" He launched himself forward, fists flying. Doom simply raised one hand and conjured a green force field around himself — nothing Reed's abilities could penetrate.
"Of all the gifts granted by that dimension, Richards, yours truly is the least impressive," Doom laughed. He sent out a bolt of lightning that threw Reed back hard against his own workstation.
"I won't give up, Victor. Not until I stop you," Reed gasped, hauling himself back upright.
I got back to my own fight. Two drones came at me simultaneously. I dodged both, shot a web line, and spun them around like a hammer throw before releasing them into a cluster of other robots. I webbed the pile down with the hardest compound I could produce.
I turned back to Reed — he was getting fried. I had to help.
"Hey! Gloom and Doom!" I yelled.
"Who dares —" His sentence ended abruptly as my fist connected with his jaw, snapping his head back.
"Reed, are you alright?" I ran to the man.
"I — I am fine," he gasped.
"Good. Can you shut down the machine?" I asked.
"Yes, just give me a moment," he turned to the controls. I turned to face Doom.
"You pathetic insect!" Doom roared, rising to his feet. "You dare challenge Doom?!"
"Look, I get it — having a name like 'Doom' makes puns basically compulsory. But does every single sentence have to be one?" I scoffed.
"Die, you insolent fool!" He sent a full blast of electricity straight at me.
I couldn't dodge. If I moved, it would hit Reed, who was standing directly behind me — and he was the one who could actually end this.
So I stood my ground. Against every instinct screaming at me to run, I didn't move. The electricity hit me like a battering ram. I felt every muscle in my body lock up as the charge poured through me. I stayed on my feet.
He stopped, and I was still standing. Panting, but upright.
"How are you still standing?!" Doom roared.
I smiled beneath my helmet. "Simple. I'm better than you." I straightened and crossed my arms over my chest. "Now — eat this."
I threw my arms apart and unleashed the unibeam from my arc reactor at full power.
Doom's eyes went wide as he was hurled back by the full force of the reactor's output. The Parker Blood woven into my suit had siphoned off his electrical charge and fed it straight into the arc reactor as bonus fuel. Thanks for the power-up, jackass.
I finally lowered my arms, exhausted. "How?!" Doom bellowed as he staggered back to his feet. "How do you possess this technology?!"
"I took it off a drone," I smiled.
"Insolent worm! No matter — Doom will not be stopped!" He snapped his fingers.
The robots I had webbed to one side suddenly tore free of the webbing and swarmed me. They pinned me to the wall. I fought against them, punching and tearing my way through the mass of metal bodies, ripping them apart piece by piece.
"Stand down, Richards," Doom sent a bolt of energy into Reed's back. Reed cried out and went down. Doom stepped over his body and worked quickly at the portal terminal — and in a matter of seconds, the purple sheen over the portal returned.
"It was hopeless to even try, Richards," Victor gloated as he approached the portal. "All this power, all this knowledge, and you seek to hide it away like a shameful secret? Truly, you are a fool of the highest order."
"No. Not the highest order," Reed grinned. He stretched one finger out and pressed a button.
The machine groaned. Then it began pulling everything in the room toward it.
"What have you done?!" Doom yelled, staggering against the suction.
"Sending you where you belong!" Reed roared, throwing a punch that pushed Doom back — but not far enough to send him through.
"I've got this!" I yelled, firing the unibeam one more time, tearing through the last of my robot captors. I broke free, sprinted at Doom, and launched myself into both feet first — driving them squarely into his chest.
He went flying backward.
"See you — wouldn't want to be you!" I threw a web line to the wall and held on as Doom sailed through the portal.
"NOOOO!" he screamed. The moment he slipped through, Reed hit the second button. The portal ceased its pull instantly.
I let go of the web line and slid to the floor, breathing hard. I turned to Reed. "Did you plan that?"
He nodded. "Victor's ego would demand a witness to his triumph. And his hatred for me all but guaranteed that witness would be me."
"So you turned the portal into a trap," I said, and then lay flat on my back on the floor. "Nice. Never doubted you for a second there, chief. I'm just...ah, I'm just going to lie here for a while, if that's alright. Alright."
Reed chuckled and lay down beside me. "I think I'll join you."
---
Once my body had recovered, I went out and helped Reed dismantle the energy barrier Doom had erected around the Baxter Building. I then swung down to collect Johnny, who was still unconscious in the web net. We managed to bring him round, along with Sue and Ben.
The others were fairly irritated about getting knocked out so easily, but they were glad Doom had finally been stopped — even if Sue seemed troubled by how far things had to go to stop him.
About an hour later, men in black suits were knocking at the doors. SHIELD agents. None I recognised, so I didn't mention I was on their payroll. They helped with the clean-up, carting off the Doom Bot wreckage for storage. We didn't try to stop them, though Sue kept a careful eye to make sure nothing of ours was taken. They cleared out quickly, and we all called it a night.
"Yeah, don't worry, Aunt May, I'm fine. I wasn't even on the top floors at the time," I grumbled into the phone as May launched into another worried lecture about how careful I should be. "Don't worry, Aunt May, I'll be fine. I will be home late tonight though — I need to help clean up the lab. Okay?" She agreed, and I hung up, wishing her and Ben a happy New Year.
I went back to my lab and finally removed my helmet. I walked up to my table and smiled. There it was — the mostly intact Doom Bot I had quietly set aside for myself. Doom was a madman, but he was also, undeniably, a genius. A mad genius. Okay, perhaps more heavily weighted toward the mad end of that particular spectrum.
Unfortunately, that would have to wait. It was New Year's Eve and I had a promise to keep.
I found the robot's power core and switched it off. I wasn't being paranoid — there was a real chance Doom could send a signal back through the dimensional portal and remotely activate it to work toward his own escape. It could totally happen. This was, after all, essentially a comic book universe.
I put on my mask and opened the lab window. I jumped out and swung into the night. Thirty minutes to midnight. Perfect.
I swung past a bakery that was still open and bought a cake. It was a strange experience, queuing at the counter in full costume like a regular person. People were already taking pictures and posting them to social media. I paid quickly and disappeared back into the night, making my way to Felicia's apartment.
I landed outside her window and knocked. Felicia looked up from her bed and smiled. She walked over and opened the window. "Hello, stranger."
"Hello, ma'am. I heard reports of a very attractive woman in need of company tonight. May I come in?"
Felicia stepped aside to let me in and rolled her eyes. "Nerd."
"Your nerd." I removed my mask, wrapped an arm around her, and kissed her properly on the lips.
Felicia hummed as she slowly pulled away. She spotted the parcel in my hand and smiled. "Is that for me?"
"Yup! And you'll never guess what it is!" I teased.
"You bought me a triple chocolate cake with sprinkles," Felicia said with a knowing smile.
I stared at her. "How in the hell did you know that?!"
"Twitter's been busy," she chuckled, tossing me her phone. Sure enough, the pictures from the bakery had gone viral. The comments were a treat: *Who's the lucky girl? Damn, someone gets his fine ass for New Year's and I get nothing?! Is he single? Keep eating cake and those pants won't fit anymore, Spidey.*
I chuckled. "Damn. Should have known."
"So...cake?" Felicia asked.
"You do like cake, right?" I smiled, putting it on her desk.
"Oh, I love cake," she said, wrapping her arms around me and kissing me again, then pulling me toward her bed. She went quickly up on top, fingers tracing down my suit, and then stopped the kiss and grumbled, "I genuinely hate your suit. It always hides the good stuff."
I laughed. "I could say the same about everything you wear in general." I pressed the release and shimmied out of the suit. "So — any New Year's resolutions?"
"Hm. Yeah. I'm planning on making sure my idiot superhero boyfriend doesn't get himself killed," she grumbled.
"Oh, relax — what's the worst that could happen?" I laughed.
"That is exactly the kind of thing you should never say out loud, Tiger," Felicia grumbled. "You realise something terrible is going to happen now, right?"
"Oh come on, Kitten. What could possibly —"
"— Felicia! I'm home!"
I looked at Felicia. She looked back at me. "My mother," she hissed.
I gulped. "Didn't see that coming."
"Get out. Now!" She threw the window open.
I grabbed my suit and tried to pull it on, but there was absolutely no time. I could already hear footsteps in the hallway. I jumped out the window and crawled up the outside wall, pressing myself flat in the cold and the snow.
"Felicia, happy New Year, dear," I heard her mother call cheerfully.
"H-hey, Mom. I didn't expect you," Felicia sounded tense. I sighed quietly, pulling my costume the rest of the way on. Well played, universe.
"I got home early because I thought we could spend some proper mother-daughter time together! Now come, I've made us reservations at that Italian place you like. Wear something appropriate, please."
Felicia sighed. A moment later her head appeared at the window. "I'm sorry. I genuinely didn't think she'd be coming home tonight."
"It's fine. It's my fault, really — me and my big mouth," I sighed, leaning down to plant a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Go on, have a good time. We'll catch up later."
"Sorry, Tiger," she said again. I waved it off and jumped from the building, swinging back into the night.
Well. I was already in costume. Might as well be useful.
For the rest of the night I was out on patrol — stopping a mugging, breaking up a gang of thieves who were attempting to pull a cash machine out of a wall in Hell's Kitchen.
But as I was swinging through the streets, I noticed something that stopped me. A cluster of homeless people huddled together around a barrel fire, wrapped in whatever spare clothes they could find. All kinds of people — men, women, some who looked elderly. If they stayed out here on a night this cold, the risk of hypothermia was real.
I called the police and waited on a rooftop for them to arrive. They came quickly and escorted the group to the nearest shelter. But after the police left, I watched in disbelief as the homeless people were turned away at the door. Something was very wrong.
I landed in front of the shelter as people were being pushed back outside. Everyone noticed me immediately. The man running the door looked terrified — a heavyset man in his thirties who looked like he hadn't missed a meal in his life.
"What is going on?" I growled. "Why are you turning these people away?"
"W-we don't have enough funds, sir. The city hasn't been giving us enough to cover everyone," the man stammered.
"Who controls your funding?"
"C-Councillman Nick Daves," he told me, finger twitching with anxiety.
"Fine. How much would it cost to house these people for one night?" I asked, drawing the attention of every person present.
"F-five thousand dollars?"
"Get them inside. I'll get you the funds," I growled, and swung away.
I stopped at an ATM and withdrew the cash. I had a bank account set up so that Sue could transfer my pay directly — I had enough saved to cover this without a problem.
I swept through the rest of the city for a while longer and found more people out on the streets in the cold. I convinced them all to make their way to the shelter.
When I returned, I came back with nearly twice as many people as before. The man in charge looked horrified.
I walked up to him and slapped down ten thousand dollars — my entire monthly salary. "If I find that even one dollar of this money isn't being used to feed and shelter these people, I will hang you by your ankles and use your stomach as a training bag. Are we clear?"
"Y-yes, sir," he nodded furiously. I guided everyone inside, made sure they were settled, and then swung off.
I continued checking the streets for anyone else left out in the cold, guiding them all back to the shelter I was now funding. By the end of it I was exhausted. I got home around three in the morning, stripped off my costume, and collapsed into bed.
I sighed and pulled out my phone, opening Twitter to see what people were saying about me.
To my complete surprise, I was trending. Again. Somehow, people had found out about my visit to the homeless shelter. There were photos of me grabbing the manager by the collar and reading him the riot act. There were memes — one of me dressed as Santa Claus, one where I was making it rain money. People were commenting on my new costume as well, calling it the coolest upgrade since the Iron Man armour.
There was even a video of me with the manager, the audio somehow boosted loud enough to make out the threat I'd given him. The comments ranged from *This guy's like Mother Teresa, except with webs!* to *A masked vigilante threatening a working man — is this what society's come to?* And everything else in between.
It was official. I was a permanent fixture of the internet now. And that gave me an idea.