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"I've been hustling all day, this a way, that a way."
THE PRESENT
Gwen opens the window and walks into her home. She observes her dad doing the dishwashing. She was about to enter her room but George stopped her. "Oh, hey, hey, hey, hey. How was the band?"
"Uh, yeah, uh, great. I quit. So y'know. Thumbs up." She uttered sarcastically as she placed a thumbs up into the air. Gwen entered her room, keeping her head down, avoiding eye contact.
"Oh okay."
Gwen enters her room as George sighs and looks at the floor. He entered Gwen's room to share good news. "We caught a break in the Spider Woman case."
Gwen pauses, her eyes widening in panic, before collecting herself and continuing the conversation normally. "Oh. That's good.
"We're close. I'm telling you I can feel it."
Gwen cleared her throat and rummaged through her closet. "Me too."
George's eyes dulled in dissatisfaction at his daughter's lack of enthusiasm. "It'll be good for the both of us."
"Don't be so sure." She pulls out a purple sweater and examines it.
"She killed your friend."
"You don't know that." "What do you mean? I don't know that. I do know that. I was there. She ran from the scene."
"Maybe she didn't have a choice." Gwen defeated her alternate self.
"I—I got a job to do, Gwen."
"It won't bring him back!" Gwen raised her voice, upset. She didn't want to think about Peter, and she didn't want to talk about him.
"Uh—I don't want to argue about this, okay?"
"Yeah, I can tell." Gwen continues to put things in her backpack.
"Say, uh, you too punk rock to give your old man a hug?"
With a quick sprint, Gwen embraces her father tightly, and he does the same. Warmth flooded Gwen's heart. It provided her with a sense of security. Her once-dull aura had been replaced with vivid hues. A tiny smile flashed over her lips before the walkie-talkie broke the scene.
Her smile dropped as she and her dad looked over at the walkie-talkie.
Dispatcher: "All units...possible Superman event...Guggenheim museum. The suspect is Adrian Thomas, also known as vulture. We do not know the full scale of the threat yet."
George grabbed his walkie-talkie and rushed to the entrance of the apartment. He grabbed his police uniform and exited. "I'll—I'll call! Love you!"
Gwen's gaze lowered in melancholy, and suddenly her eyebrows dipped in determination. She was determined to reach her destination and save lives. She approached her plush penguin, unzipped the back, and activated the walkie-talkie.
We're going to need all the help we can get.
Gwen kicked open her drum set and pulled out her spider suit. Only to reveal a picture of her and Miles. She continued to stare at it sadly before changing into her costume. She tied her ballet shoes before placing her mask on.
The walkie-talkie mentioned her—well, spider woman—until Gwen turned it off. She leaped out of the window gracefully and maneuvered over the buildings. Making her way over to the museum.
As she stood on the building and gazed at the museum, it was nighttime, with a crowd of police officers and civilians down below and two helicopters hovering over the museum with beaming lights. There were over five police cars at the scene.
Down below, George had just arrived at the scene. He then told his co-worker, "Explain to me how a man with a four-foot wingspan walked into the Guggenheim unnoticed."
"It's New York; everyone's got their thing."
Suddenly, there was an explosion. Everyone crouched and covered their faces just in case smoke got into their eyes or noses.
"You know what he wants?" George asked as he glanced at his coworker again.
"Do you speak Italian?"
"Uh, I'm an Irish cop."
"Maybe he'll love pasta or something."
"Everybody on my signal!" George stated it loudly and clearly. "Look out for spider woman!"
The two were suddenly webbed to the police car. George was about to speak until a web covered his mouth. The other police officer shimmied her hand out of the web and waited for a fist bump. "Yup, we got our sign."
Gwen dropped down, hanging upside down before deepening her voice so that her dad couldn't detect it was her. "How's the manhunt for me?"
George shouted into the web, muffling his voice. His body withered around the web, desperately trying to arrest the spider woman in front of him.
"Good to know." Gwen answered and flipped inside the museum. She landed gracefully before standing up. Her voice echoed as she spoke. "Vulture!"
The only sound was the wires crackling.
Gwen shrugged. "Screaming their name usually works—"
She was slammed by a large bird—no, a vulture. Gwen tumbled onto the ground with a grunt. She got up slowly, in pain. "I guess that worked."
"I am the vulture." The vulture flapped its wings menacingly. "The pinnacle of man's genius."
"You're not my vulture. What are you made of, parchment paper?" Gwen pointed out. She was unimpressed with what she was looking at and found it very funny. Gwen could never take things seriously.
"What cursed world have you brought me to—" He then jumped in shock at the glitch. His body convulsed for a moment before stopping and calming down.
"You're glitching, huh. Been there." Gwen finally stood up and looked up at the vulture. "Uh, where are you from, Bud?"
"I am an artist, an engineer." He shot a few arrows at Gwen, who only moved her shoulders to avoid it.
"Oh great, a Renaissance man." She shot a web at the vulture, launched herself up, and kicked him in the head. "Oh, let me guess. You were having an expresso and some old-timey Leonardo DaVinci dimension, and suddenly a portal opens up, and you wind up here. Am I warm?"
"Yes, that's pretty much it." He replied as Gwen kept her grip on vultures back. The vulture was still a bit glitchy from all the damage.
"Sidebar? Uh, maybe you could stop making a mess if the art museum for no reason."
Vulture points at the huge Jeff Koons balloon animal sculpture and scoffs. "You call this art?"
"We're talking about it, aren't we?"
Vulture's wing sliced the head of the balloon animal sculpture, which was filled with miniature versions of them.
"Oh, that's cool." One of her civilians murmured to the other.
The vulture attempted to attack the civilian, only to be redirected by Gwen. They flew up toward the ceiling. "I mean, it's more of a metal commentary on what we call art, but it's also art."
Vulture tired of her constant talking, launches her off from his back. Gwen smashed into the other sculptures before landing on the floor.
"Oh, look, it's your cousin." Gwen joked as she pointed at another statue.
Vulture grunted in anger before putting on a black crow mask. He charged up a luminescent yellow ball from his mouth before shooting it at spider woman.
Gwen sprinted out of the way, nearly dodging it. She flipped around, showing off her acrobatic skills. "I wouldn't play with fire because you're kind of made of paper."
A large claw-like machine came out of vulture, landing accurately on Gwen's body. One of vultures talon landed on her arm and the other on her face. The claw kept her body in place.
"Ciao Ragazza." "Oh no."
His claw was about to tear her apart until a few glowing red webs stopped him. It came from a glowing portal in the ceiling. Gwen swears she can hear a theme song coming from it, or maybe she was just being a bit delusional.
She watched as an unknown figure tackled the vulture into the wall. Gwen pushed herself off the wall before grunting in pain, before she swung herself towards the ground.
Gwen watched as the strange man stood up. The man's hand with the wristband turned into a claw as his webs slowly disappeared.
"I'm sorry, who exactly are you supposed to be?" Gwen asked, pointing at him.
"It's classified." The man answered with his back still turned on her.
"You're the blue panther." She guessed.
"No."
"The caped blue sader?"
"No, I'm—"
"Dark Garfield."
"No, stop—"
"Macho Libre!"
"I'm from another dimension." Miguel finally answered her.
"You are!" Gwen placed both hands toward her face before dropping them beside her. "Wow, actually, I'm not confused."
"My name is Miguel O'Hara. I lead an elite strike force dedicated to the security of the multiverse—"
"Wait, forget it. Can you go to any dimension you want with that watch."
"It's much cooler than a watch—"
"Okay, sensitive."
"It's just a watch." A random woman in a pristine, all white spider suit appeared out of nowhere. The woman swung back into the air and hopped onto the wall, scanning for any anomalies.
"Who was that?" Gwen asked, pointing in the direction they went.
"It's classified."
"Everything's classified with you, huh." Gwen rolled her eyes before mentioning. "Look, there is a big flying turkey from the Renaissance. I have to bring it to justice, so if you don't mind."
"It's alright, kid. I'll take it from here." Miguel answered, not knowing what was coming next.
"Okay." Gwen raised an eyebrow at the man's confidence. "Knock yourself out."
"Why are you saying it like that—" Miguel was tackled by the vulture and thrown into the wall.
"Uh—I don't know." Gwen giggled.
Meanwhile, George and the crew of cops entered the museum and looked up to see two figures on the vulture, until a third one hopped onto it. George nodded his head, determined to get that vulture and spider woman.
"You're not funny." Miguel said.
"I don't know." Gwen answered with a small giggle.
"It'll really be fun to clean up your shocking mess!" Miguel shouted over the noise from the crumbling infrastructure.
"What mess?" Gwen asked.
"Kingpin's collider."
"Miguel, he's gonna claw your eyes out!" Harley screamed, concerned for his safety but also finding the situation hilarious.
Gwen turned her head to see a spider suit similar to hers, but instead it was all white. "Who are you?!"
"Oh, sorry! I'm Harley! Nice to meet you! I would have small talk with you right now, but right now is not the right circumstance!"
"Harley!" Miguel shouted. "Focus on the job!"
"Focus on the job!" Harley mocked him.
"Don't do this right now!" Miguel adjusted the wing so he could get on top of the vulture. It was surprising that the vulture hadn't collapsed yet due to all the weight.
"What are you guys talking about?" He vulture asked.
"Mind your business."
"You shut up! Callate!"
"Shut up!"
"We saved the multiverse!" Gwen continued the conversation from earlier.
"You left a hole wide enough for guys like him. Who randomly gets shot into the wrong dimension. Now I'm stuck putting everyone back where they belong for all of time as space collapses. You don't even get me started on Doctor Strange and a little nerd back on earth, 1999.99." Miguel scowled at her.
Miguel and Gwen jumped off. Miguel grabbed Harley's arm to drag her with him before releasing her. The three ran quickly towards a few civilians to rescue them.
"Who's Doctor Strange? Sounds like maybe he shouldn't practice medicine." Gwen webbed her dad's wrists onto the wall before muttering a small apology.
"Why couldn't he pick another day?!" Harley shouted in frustration. "It's the weekend!"
"Is this what you're really concerned about right now?!" Miguel retorted.
"You know what I mean, Miguel! As much as I love saving people, we need breaks!"
"People like us don't get breaks!"
"You mean people like you!"
"Uh—sorry to interrupt your friendly banter, but there's some weird flying things coming at us." Gwen interrupted the two before pointing at the flying grenade, filled with fire. "Do you want me to handle this one or—"
Miguel leaped off the balcony before smashing them all with his fists. He then used his webs to break all of them, showing off.
"That was hot." Harley murmured underneath her breath, but Gwen heard it.
"What did you say?"
"Huh?! Nothing."
Gwen and Harley avoided the remaining gernades as Miguel leaped onto the vulture and ripped one of his wings off, making the vulture lose coordination and spiral out of control.
Quickly, vulture grew his wing back.
Miguel's eyes widened. "Ay pro dios! He's got hammerspace!"
{HAMMERSPACE: An infinite extradimensional storage area for cartoon hammers and the like——ed.}
Miguel fell backwards and crashed through multiple floors.
Harley grimaced at the sight of her boyfriend on the floor. She saw Miguel sit up, completely fine. Miguel glanced up at Harley, who held two thumbs up. The man only shook his head.
Gwen jumped onto the top of the vulture, only for razor sharp spikes to pop up. She barely avoided them, until she was scraped against the wall and back onto the floor.
Harley also grimaced at that, but sighed in relief when she sat up.
"Lyla, can you please, you know—"
"Nah, you got to say it first." Lyla grinned smugly.
"Call for backup." He mumbled.
"What?"
"Call for backup."
"C'mon."
"Please just call for—"
"Yeah, I already called her."
Miguel grunted in frustration. He was tired of the relentless teasing.
"But I enjoyed that." She lifted her phone and took a selfie. Miguel had bunny ears on him. Suddenly another portal opened, and a woman with a motorcycle came in.
