Chapter 9: A New Universe
"Easy there, man. No clue which universe we're getting tossed into. At least we've got each other for company, so try to breathe a little," Peter groaned, clutching his aching stomach.
"Only one of us gets to walk away," the black-clad Spider-Man shot back.
"Yeah… looks like you need to cool off."
Peter fired a webline and triggered its taser mode.
"Agh—! Aah!"
The dark Spider-Man convulsed under the surge of electricity, the shock ripping through him.
Spider-Man anticipated his dark counterpart would pass out, but what happened next took him completely by surprise.
Instead of collapsing, Black Spider-Man began to dissipate after being subjected to the electric shock.
"Whoa! Sorry! Didn't realize electricity was your weak spot."
Seeing the situation deteriorating, Spider-Man immediately stopped the electric attack.
However, Black Spider-Man's disintegration was unstoppable. His body slowly dissolved into motes of light.
"Spider-Man… you're going to regret this."
With a final burst of strength, he tore free from Peter's hold and swung a fist toward him.
But before the punch could land, his body fully disintegrated into a cloud of shimmering light.
This cluster of light didn't vanish; instead, it slowly merged into Spider-Man's body.
Spider-Man instinctively resisted the light's entry, wary that this might be another one of Black Spider-Man's insidious tricks.
But trapped within the time tunnel, he couldn't control his own movements. He could only watch helplessly as the light invaded his form.
Golden light enveloped Spider-Man completely, and he felt a significant surge in his abilities as it entered his body.
"Whoa… okay. That's… that's new." Peter flexed his fist, stunned.
His strength felt twice what it used to be.
His spider-sense expanded outward, reaching farther than ever.
"This is insane." Spider-Man marveled at his increased power.
The last time he'd felt something similar was when Venom had bonded with him, but this sensation was even better.
As the Dark Spider-Man vanished, the Hameno Stone inside him floated free in the tunnel, drifting into view.
Peter fired a web and pulled it to his hand.
"So this is an Asgardian treasure? Doesn't look like much. Hard to believe something this tiny packs that kind of punch."
He rolled it in his palm.
"Guess I should give it back to Thor someday. Assuming I manage to get home in one piece."
The time-space tunnel stretched on endlessly before him. No exits, no anchors, no direction.
"At least I had the Green Goblin with me before. Now it's just me and, well… not really just me, I guess."
Floating ahead was the Iron Spider Armor, spinning slowly through the current.
Peter sent a line of webbing and reeled it in.
"Looks like you're the only company I get," he murmured to the suit.
"I promised Aunt May I'd be home for dinner. Now it looks like I'm going to miss tonight's dinner... and maybe even all the dinners to come." Spider-Man couldn't imagine Aunt May's expression when she found out he was missing.
"Honestly, I haven't spent real time with her in forever. Being Spider-Man eats up everything. Hard to find moments to actually live as Peter Parker."
"When all this is over, I'm giving myself a real break," Peter muttered, mapping out imaginary plans for when he finally got out. Talking to himself was the only thing that eased the weight of being trapped in an endless time-space tunnel.
He had no idea how long he'd been drifting when he suddenly spotted familiar figures inside one of the universes drifting past him. The Avengers. Doctor Strange among them.
"Doctor trange? Perfect… maybe another universe's Sorcerer Supreme can send me home."
Fixing his eyes on that universe, Peter propelled himself toward it and dove through.
…
Ultimate Spider-Man Universe, on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.
Nick Fury stood at the window of the Helicarrier, eyes shut as he tried to settle his mind. An hour earlier, the student heroes from S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy had returned aboard the auto-pilot transport… but the one who went back to save them — Spider-Man — was nowhere to be seen.
Click.
The control room doors slid open. Fury didn't need to look to know it was Agent Coulson.
"How are the kids?" Fury asked.
"They're waking up one at a time. Amadeus Cho's the only one with minor frostbite. The others came out of it fine," Coulson reported.
"Who set the trap in the Arctic?" Fury asked the question that concerned him most.
"Our team found nothing. The kids know nothing about the Arctic situation," Coulson answered.
"Nothing?" Fury frowned.
"They remember spotting S.H.I.E.L.D. agents… then a wave of drowsiness hit them. They all blacked out immediately after."
"What about Amadeus? If he managed to get the Iron Spider Armor back safely, he must know something," Fury continued.
"That's what's most perplexing, sir. After waking up, Amadeus insisted he never issued any command to the Iron Spider Armor. He has no idea why the suit returned to the Helicarrier on its own," Coulson said, troubled.
"What?" Fury's expression stiffened. The Iron Spider Armor hadn't been Amadeus' backup plan after all.
"Then what about Spider-Man's location?" he asked.
The issue of the Iron Spider Armor could be addressed later. Right now, Spider-Man was all that mattered.
"Spider-Man's signal disappeared forty-five minutes ago. Thirty minutes ago, the storm in the Arctic cleared. Satellite scans show no trace of him."
Coulson continued, "At the same time, Nova woke up. The moment he learned what happened, he ignored all our warnings and flew straight for the Arctic."
"He found no sign of Spider-Man or the enemy. But he did find this." Coulson placed two destroyed web-shooters on the table.
Nick Fury recognized them; they were custom-built for Spider-Man by S.H.I.E.L.D.
"And there's more. He found fragments of Spider-Man's suit and traces of blood near a hole in the ice."
"So…?" Nick Fury's voice trembled.
With both web-shooters destroyed, fragments of Spider-Man's suit and blood discovered, and the ice hole nearby, Nick Fury had already come to a grim conclusion about Spider-Man's fate.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. analysts believe Spider-Man and the enemy fell into the Arctic Ocean together. Based on the damage patterns and Spider-Man's usual capabilities… they estimate his chance of survival is nearly zero." Coulson said, his eyes welling up.
The number hit Fury like a blow.
Zero.
His body trembled. He locked his jaw, fighting to keep his expression from collapsing in front of Coulson.
But his unsteady voice exposed his grief long before his face did.