Blitzkrieg Bop!

"They're Forming in a Straight Line"

Peter sighed as he swung through the air, hard rain droplets splattering against his suit. He always hated patrolling in the rain, but that's when a good handful of criminals figured they could easily get away with stuff, so here he was. He'd rather be at home having a movie night with Aunt May, or going over wedding plans for the 100th time with MJ, but this was his responsibility as a hero. When the city needed him, even just to handle a few punks robbing convenience stores, he was there.

"Just one more hour," he said to himself in a forcebly cheerful tone. The lights of the city below blurred in the rain. "And I'll call it a night."

Honestly, Peter would probably be in a much better mood right now if he hadn't just taken a solid punch to the head while fighting some guy who'd gotten ahold of some stolen tech. The guy was a low-class criminal who'd barely known how to use the tech, but it didn't stop him from berserk with it. Peter's enhanced healing was already working wonders, but it still left him with a killer headache. Mix that headache with a wet suit, and...yeah, not a recipe for a good evening.

Another clash of lightning and boom of thunder. Then another right after that, this one even louder. The sound rang in Peter's ears. He stared up at the sky. Then it happened.

At first, he felt a familiar tingling sensation in the back of his skull. He was standing on the roof of a fairly tall building right now, so he was confused as to what that feeling was alerting it to. He was the only one up here. He was about to brush it off as nothing, when that feeling suddenly became much more intense, his spidey-sense ringing warning bells in his head.

Peter's eyes narrowed as he whipped around, looking for whatever it was that was setting his internal alarm off, but he still didn't see anything that might be the cause of it. "I guess I hit my head harder than I thought," he muttered to himself. "Or I'm just losing it."

He held out his arm, about to press down on his web-shooter, but before he was able to swing off the roof, he felt the tinge of electricity run through the air, causing the little hairs on his arms to rise up. His initial thought was, 'Oh shoot, I'm about to be struck by lightning, aren't I?', but when the ground below him lit up instead of the sky, his confusion only grew.

"Yep, I'm losing it. Definitely losing it."

There was no strike of lightning, only what looked to be some sudden burst of energy pulsing from the alleyway. This was strange, even for New York, so hoping that he wouldn't be reduced to a pile of ash checking this anomaly out, he swung several stories down to try to figure out what the heck was happening.

The back of his skull was still tingling, which annoyingly only made his already-present headache grow worse. As soon as he landed on the ground, about ten feet away from whatever this was, he knew without a doubt that this was what his spider-sense was warning him about.

"O-o-okay," he said slowly, climbing up the wall and then doing a flip back down so that he was on the other side of this pulsing-energy-blob-thing. "This is weird."

Peter had the sudden urge to poke the energy with his finger, but before he got the chance to do that, it exploded.

Well, not exploded, exactly, though he definitely thought it did at first. In only half a second, the swarm of energy doubled, then tripled in size, overtaking half the alleyway in its light. Peter was forced to jump (more like stumble) backwards to avoid getting caught up in it. It changed colors, going from a bright green to a deeper orange, then something--no, someone--fell out of it. Then, only moments later, the energy pulsed again and shrank into itself, before vanishing.

Even though all of Peter's instincts were screaming at him to act, to do something, he just stood there, staring wide-eyed at the person who'd just emerged from that portal-thing. He'd seen portals before, mostly whenever he was around Doctor Strange, but this one felt...different somehow.

"Hey, uh...Are you okay?" Peter said, inching a little closer to the fallen figure. There was no movement for a moment there, and Peter started to worry whether they were dead or not, when they suddenly groaned and brought themself to their knees. Their shoulders were hunched together, and it looked like they might be in pain, but then they turned around, and Peter froze.

A mask was covering their face, a mask that looked a lot like his. But it wasn't just the mask, the mystery person was also wearing a blue-and-red suit with a very, very familiar spider insignia. The suit was different from his, but it was clear this was some kind of imitation of his own Spider-Man suit, even with the spike-like things coming from the arms of the suit.

"What is this, some kind of bad cosplay?" he asked as he cautiously approached them.

Of all replies Peter was expecting, a growl definitely wasn't one of them. He quickly threw his hands up to show that he meant to harm. "Easy now, I'm just here to help," Spider-Man said, changing his tone to a more gentle one. Despite the growl, he wasn't sure if this person was a friend or a foe, and he'd really like to give them the benefit of the doubt. For all he knew, they were just as confused about this as he was.

"Where am I?" the mystery person's voice rang out. Their tone was low and dangerous. The eyes of their mask narrowed suspiciously. "What are you wearing?"

"50th Street. And what are you wearing?"

"50th...What?"

Spider-Man raised an eyebrow. "Uhhh...Brooklyn? Brooklyn, New York?"

The mystery person looked at Peter like he was crazy. "You mean Nueva York."

Peter shrugged. "Sure. So...Did you intentionally fall through that portal or...?"

"Portal..." They mumbled, looking like they were in some sort of daze. With one shaking arm they gripped the alleyway, in an attempt to stand. When their legs started to buckle though, what looked like claws suddenly emerged from their hands.

That's right. Claws. Or talons, or something. Peter wasn't really sure what he was looking at. Whatever they were, they dug into the wall, the sound harsh to his ears. He held up a finger and opened his mouth to speak, but then promptly shut his mouth. For once, he wasn't sure what to say.

The stranger took a shuddering breath and glared at Spider-Man. "Who--who are you? You have no right to be wearing that suit."

Peter placed one hand on his hip. "Did that portal rattle your brain around or something? I'm Spider-Man, I invented this suit."

The stranger scoffed, then brought a fist up to their mouth when it turned into a cough. The glare didn't waver. "I'm Spider-Man. Who are you really? An android? A clone imposter?"

Peter clutched his heart in a very dramatic manner, looking as affronted as possible. "Woah, me? A clone imposter? Now that hurts." The stranger clearly thought he was an idiot now, so Peter decided he should set things straight. "You really have no idea who I am? Okay, okay, let's try this. Where were you before...this happened?" He frowned. "You're not looking so good. I can get you help, but I need some answers first."

They sighed in frustration. "I was near Alchemax in Nueva York, tracking down...an enemy of mine. I--"

"An enemy? Oh, so you have enemies now?"

They ignored Peter. "--I..." they grimanced. "I can't remember what happened after that. I just...wound up here. But this isn't--this isn't Nueva York."

That somehow only left Peter with more questions than answers. Then, he felt it.

A tingling feeling in the back of his head again, but this was different from his usual spidey-sense. This was...

"You're like me," Peter breathed, barely a whisper. "Did you--you felt that too, right?"

Judging by the masked-look on the stranger's face, he did. And he didn't look happy about it. "We're both--"

"Spider-Man," Peter finished. "I thought I was the only one."

"...Me too..."

Peter took a deep breath and then slowly let it out, his hands fiddling. This was potentially a very bad idea, but...

With one hand, he pulled off his mask, looking the stranger in the eyes. "I'm Peter B. Parker, New York's...Well, previously New York's one and only Spider-Man."

The stranger gazed at him intently, then his mask somehow vanished. "Miguel O'Hara," he said reluctantly. "Spider-Man 2099."