Peter POV:
The bus hummed along the scenic streets, headlights spilling over the endless road back to New York. Inside, the four sat in the back row, the bus devoid of any other passengers apart from them. I had stripped off my hoodie and the glow along my spine pulsed faint neon orange beneath the thin fabric of my T-shirt.
Miles leaned forward, eyes wide. "Okay. Question one. Why is your spine… doing that?"
I stretched, cracking my neck like it was nothing. "Short answer? It keeps me walking. Long answer? I shouldn't be even walking let alone vaulting through universes."
Peter B. raised an eyebrow. "You mean the concrete crash. Kid, we learned from Gwen what happened in her universe. We thought you were also going to..."
"Die?" My voice was flat. "And I would've been. But spite is a hell of a fuel. I refused to stop breathing. After I recovered, I first fixed my spine using the Sandevistan, then the nanobots rebuilt and rewired what was left of the nervous system of my lower body. The Sandevistan also keeps my body moving faster than my muscles should allow. It used to hurt sometimes. But after I fixed the problem of Telomere decay things have been normal."
Gwen's breath hitched. "So you're… walking because you refused to be bound to a wheelchair?"
My lips quirked in a humorless grin. "Pretty much. Also had to make certain that Gwendolyn didn't become too reckless."
Miles blinked, still trying to wrap his head around it. "And all that… lets you move like a video game character"
"Exactly." I leaned back, letting my spine glow faintly brighter. "That's how I saved my Gwen. I tore the Lizard off her before he could crush her and I grounded the Vulture with my bare hands before he could gut her. Same with Captain Stacy. He was half-dead when I found him. I shoved a regeneration serum down his veins until he stood again."
Silence fell, heavy and raw. Gwen's fists trembled in her lap. She wanted to speak but her throat was locked.
The quiet shattered with a violent crackle. Peter B. doubled forward, glitching violently, jagged pixels tearing through his entire being. Gwen followed, her body flickering as if she would unravel in the next moment.
"Not now..." Peter B. hissed, his voice splitting in echoes.
I shot upright. "Hold still." I tapped on my gauntlet and black bands of shimmering violet light snaked out, latching onto their wrists. The dimensional stabilizers pulsed, syncing to their signatures. Slowly, the glitching smoothed, their bodies knitting back together into stability.
Breaths came ragged. Gwen clutched her knees, whispering, "What was that?"
"Dimensional sickness." I explained, sitting back down. My tone was calm, controlled, but my hands shook faintly when I flexed them. "The collider's explosion damaged the walls between universes. That's why I built the navigation gauntlets. They anchor us. Without them…" I trailed off. No one needed me to finish my sentence.
Miles swallowed. "So if they stay here too long..."
"You unravel but that problem is solved with the stabilizer bands." I said plainly. "That's why we're figuring out the extent of the damage. Why we have to stop Kingpin from ever running that machine again."
Queens, NYC
Under pale porch light, stood a small, familiar house.
Aunt May's house.
Peter B. exhaled, nerves twisting in his gut. "Guess this is it." He fired a web at the doorbell, the ding-dong echoing through the night. He turned, already stepping off the porch. " This is a bad idea. We should go before she..."
A web snapped around his shoulder, halting him. Gwendolyn's voice was sharp. "Don't you dare."
The door creaked open. A frail but firm voice called, "Who's out there?"
Aunt May stepped into view, a baseball bat in her hand. The bat clattered to the ground the moment her eyes landed on the porch.
Two Peters.
Her breath caught in her throat.
And for a long, fragile moment, no one moved.
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