Spider-Byte: Multiversal Madness

Chapter 15: One Messed Up Life

Miguel stared at Miles menacingly as he descended the platform. The dim blue and yellow lights contrasted perfectly on his face, giving him a scarier look. "Lyla, do the thing," he said, his eyes still on Miles.

The holographic woman from before appeared out of nowhere, "Huh? What thing?" In one second, Miguel's tough guy facade blew over. "Wha- what do you mean 'what thing'? The information explain-y thing!" He said in a whiny voice. "Oooooh, okay!" With that, Lyla disappeared again.

The room went pitch black, until a single circle of light dropped. "What's this?" Miles asked, his brown eyes focused on the bright orb. "This...is everything," Miguel said. Wow, so dramatic. The orb dropped to the floor, transforming into a blue, glowing tree. Miles looked at Miguel, then at the tall tree. "Can...you be more specific?" Miguel returned his energy. "Can you...stop talking, for a second?"

The tree vanished in a flash, neon-red spiderwebs exploding across the room. "And this here...is all of us. All of our lives, woven together in a beautiful web of life and destiny." Miguel explained. Miles couldn't move. The glow washed over his suit, every bit of red webbing dragging his eyes deeper and deeper in until the world outside stopped existing. "...The Spider-Verse..." Miles whispered. "Spider-Verse? That's stupid. It's called the Arachonohumanoid Polymultiverse." Miles turned around to look at Miguel, scrunching up his nose at the name. Miguel continued, "Which sounds...stupid too, I guess."

Miles turned back around, examining the webs a bit more. "And these nodes...where the lines converge?" "They are The Canon. Chapters that are a part of every spider's story, every time." The nodes expanded, revealing various images from different Spider-Man lives. "Some good..." Miguel pointed at the nodes showing Spider-Men kissing their partners. "Some bad..." Miguel then pointed at the nodes showing Spider-People being possessed by Venom symbiotes. "...and some very bad." With that, he showed Miles a long list of Spider-People crying over loved ones. He and Melody were included. His eyes watered as he looked at himself holding his uncle for the last time. "Uncle Aaron..."

He took a glance at Melody's, watching the young, formerly straight-haired girl kneel over Captain Stacy's body as she shook and bawled, while the late Peter tried to pull her away from the body. Her first ever suit, washed out blue and white with no tech and lots of rips. Miles turned to look at Melody, her body frozen as tears welled up. Before she could cry, she turned and walked away.

Miguel continued, "This one, Event ASM-90. A police captain close to Spider-Man dies saving a kid from falling rubble during a battle with an arch-nemesis." Melody found her attention drifting to a different-looking Spider-Man. Sure, everyone doesn't look the same, but this one...was something else. His features weren't like anything or anyone she's seen before. They looked... wrong. Skin with pores, intense shadows, every detail too crisp, too sharp, too real.

Meanwhile, Miles' eyes scanned across the different Spider-People until he saw Peter looking back at his memory. "That...happened to you?" Miles asked softly. Peter glanced at Miles, then turned away, kissing Mayday on the forehead...maybe to cope. The silence said it all. "It happened to me, too," Jess said, her eyes shifting to the floor. Miles looked at Hobie. "Aye, what of it?" Hobie shrugged it off, picking at the pins on his jacket.

Miguel sighed, "That's how the story's supposed to go. Canon events are the connections that bind our lives together." The Spider-People all looked at their own canon events. Melody's popped up unexpectedly. She squinted and leaned to get a better look. Was that her? It couldn't be. She did NOT look like the picture. And who were all those people by her side? What's coming out of her hands? Melody shook it off. 'This is probably someone else's. I don't even want to see mine.'  

Miguel glared at Miles. "But those connections can be broken. That's why anomalies are so dangerous..." The nodes showed Inspector Singh running to save the kid from falling rubble... and surviving. Because of Miles. "Inspector Singh's death was a Canon event. You weren't supposed to be there and you weren't supposed to save him...that's why Gwen tried to stop you." Miles recalled Gwen holding him back from going after the kid and Inspector Singh. He turned to her, frowning. "I thought...I thought you were trying to save me." Gwen's gaze averted from Miles'. "I was...I was trying to do both."