ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

Chapter 8

--- Brooklyn, New York, Earth-1610 ---

"I know he's just a sophomore, but we wanna get a jump on the college conversation, so..." Rio said, a hint of sheepishness in her voice as she spoke to the counselor. "I'm sure he's gonna be... here."

As the word "here" left her mouth, she shared a glance with her husband, Jeff, before looking back at the shorter woman looking through Miles' records behind her desk. "Any minute."

"Very serious about his future," Jeff added with a nervous laugh to lighten up the seemingly awkward atmosphere.

The counselor, however, did not seem to share the same sentiment as she slowly turned her head, side-eyeing them from where she sat. Clearly, that was not very believable at the moment.

Meanwhile, outside of Visions Academy, the city of Brooklyn was bustling with life. There were street ball games inside the fenced courts, vendors selling hot dogs, and the sidewalks filled with people out and about.

Among them was a spotted figure dressed in a navy coat and brown hat, peering into the window of Deli Grocery. The TV hung up in the corner broadcasted the live CCTV camera footage, displaying the spotted figure entering the store and seemingly browsing around for a specific thing.

"Excuse me," the figure spoke to the man behind the register. "Do you have, uh... an ATM machine?"

The man yawned before motioning behind him. "Yeah, right around here, in the back."

"Preferably not chained to the wall," the figure mumbled as he walked toward the back where the man had motioned.

"What?"

"Uh-- Nothing!" the figure replied hastily before standing in front of the ATM. "This should be simple enough..."

The spotted figure pushed up his right sleeve and pulled a black hole-like spot off of his body. "Just make a hole... grab the money."

He placed it on the outside of the machine and then slipped his hand through the void. He felt something and looked over to his right to see that his hand had slipped through the hole and came out through another in front of a shelf of cans.

"Oh, that's not right," he said and put it back before slipping his hand back out and trying again, readjusting his position. "Just get-- Oh. Ugh, no..."

After numerous failed attempts, he tried once more and finally made it into the interior of the machine where the cash was kept. "Give me your money," he mumbled, his hand feeling around. "Where are you, money? Where are you?"

Once he got hold of the cash compartment, he began trying hard to pull it out, resulting in multiple loud bangs. He pulled harder and harder until another void formed underneath the machine, making it sink down into it.

Back at the front of the store, the owner of the store heard something outside and glanced out of the window to see someone on the sidewalk trip and fall. "Hey, who left this ATM on the sidewalk?!" the man who fell said, his belongings having flown everywhere.

Hearing more banging, the owner turned to glance over at the back, seeing the spotted figure struggling to get the ATM through the void on the floor. His mouth was wide open at the strange sight, his hand carefully reaching for his bat.

"Yo, what you doing back there, man?" the owner asked, quietly moving out from behind the counter and over to the figure.

"Nothing!" the spotted figure replied, jumping on the ATM to somehow push it down. "Nothing! Everything is-- Everything's cool, man, it's all good. Just forgot my pin number--!"