New York City — The Triskelion, S.W.O.R.D. Division, Earth-616.
Inside a research lab operated jointly by S.W.O.R.D. and Parker Industries. The dormitory floor.
Dr. Peter Parker, chief scientific consultant, lay on the cot in his quarters, his left hand swollen into a small lump, wrapped in white gauze. He is a researcher for this project, currently serving as an intern consultant with barely six months on the job. The facility, which operates under the guise of an Astronomical Observation Base, is actually a monumental project for S.W.O.R.D., its main tasks and research focused on Earth's neighbor—Mars. They use advanced telescopes to monitor Mars, while also receiving data and Extraterrestrial Samples transmitted from probes. Naturally, all these efforts are in preparation for further exploration and future manned missions to Mars.
As for Peter's injury, the story is quite frustrating. A few days ago, a Martian rover sent back a batch of collected items to Earth. Peter followed his mentor and supervisor — Dr. Otto Octavius — to receive the shipment. Everything was routine, but while handling a block of Martian soil sample, Peter was accidentally bitten by a spider that appeared from nowhere.
Logically, this kind of creature should not exist in a sterile research environment. So, the other researchers assumed Peter must have tracked the spider in from the outer Forbidden Zone and that the bite was entirely his own fault. Worse still, due to the shock of the bite, Peter accidentally dropped and shattered the precious soil sample. For this, Dr. Octavius flew into a rage and confined Peter for a full two weeks of quarantine and isolation. Of course, given the condition of his hand, he needed to rest and recuperate anyway.
"I wonder how the research on the remaining samples is progressing," Peter sighed, opening the laptop on his desk, plugging in a hard drive, and deciding to watch a pre-downloaded film to pass the time. "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This is perfect." Perhaps because he had just been bitten by a spider himself, Peter was immediately drawn to the movie. He double-clicked the video file to start watching.
CRACKLE— The screen suddenly flickered with static. "Huh?" Peter reached out and tapped the monitor. He felt a moment of doubt. He had only recently purchased this laptop; it shouldn't be malfunctioning already. The tap seemed to work; the screen returned to normal, and the movie's opening credits appeared. Peter leaned back in his chair.
CRACKLE— The screen flickered again. This time it was much more severe. The entire monitor was covered in chaotic, colorful glitches. "What the hell is going on?" Peter reached out, preparing to tap the monitor again, but his hand froze just short of the screen. A look of pure terror washed over his face.
In his line of sight, it wasn't just the picture that was twisting, but... the computer itself! It was as if the entire section of space was collapsing and warping! Faced with this grotesque sight, Peter scrambled backward, trying to distance himself. But suddenly, a tremendous suction force erupted from the chaotic space-time black hole, yanking him forward relentlessly. "No!" Peter screamed in terror as his entire body was pulled into the Spatial Rift.
"Where... am I?" Peter rubbed his dazed head and slowly climbed up from the ground. He surveyed the surroundings. He realized he hadn't appeared back at the S.W.O.R.D. base. The architecture around him resembled the buildings from his exchange student days in New York. But it felt subtly different, somehow off. Since that time, Peter had not traveled abroad, so he couldn't immediately pinpoint the discrepancy.
But the current situation was, in itself, the biggest discrepancy!
"I went from The Triskelion to another city instantly? What kind of international joke is this? Is this a spontaneous Quantum Collapse event? Have I been caught in a Universal Anomaly?" As a scientific researcher, even an inexperienced one, Peter never lacked a creative scientific thought process. After the initial shock subsided, he calmed down and started looking around.
Worst case, even if he was thrown across the globe by a quantum anomaly, if he could find a S.H.I.E.L.D. outpost, he could be repatriated—not a major problem. As for being detained, that was impossible. Their observation base, while critical, hadn't made significant progress due to current limitations. It was essentially an expensive preparatory project. As the higher-ups often said, his generation might only be laying the groundwork for future generations. Furthermore, he was only an intern researcher and couldn't know any deep classified secrets. In other words, his value was minimal.
Compared to that mundane concern, Peter was far more interested in the suspected "Quantum Collapse Phenomenon." It is well-established that a physical quantity must be quantized, meaning the smallest unit is the quantum, and it cannot be continuously divided. But now, he had encountered a phenomenon that completely overturned existing knowledge of physics. If he could unlock its secrets, he could become a truly great scientific figure, on par with Reed Richards or Hank Pym!
Excited by this thought, Peter enthusiastically dropped to his knees and started searching the ground around his entry point. Just then...
WUM— A distinct, sharp thrum—a psychic warning—suddenly echoed in Peter's mind. The hair on his body immediately stood on end. Danger? A sense of impending threat had been pushed to its absolute limit in Peter's mind.
"Hey, man. You feel it too, huh?" a voice called down from above and behind him. Peter looked up, confused, and saw a figure—almost entirely shrouded in darkness—hanging upside down from a high rooftop ledge, looking down at him. "How is that guy defying gravity?" Peter stared, astonished.
"Who are you?" Peter demanded loudly. "Relax, bro. I don't think you need to be so tense, because you've got that Spider-Sense too, right? Guess that makes us family."
The man chuckled softly and performed an action that left Peter Parker astounded. He leaped down from the rooftop ledge, more than ten meters high!