***PETER***
I'm disoriented when I remember that it's three hours earlier in San Fransokyo - assuming that's where the portal took me and Miles. Felicia, however, says it is, and when we leave the underground bunker and get a glimpse of the city skyline across the bay, it's confirmed by the Japanese-styled skyscrapers and bridges. The sun is shining much higher in the sky than it was in DC, where it had been approaching dusk.
We scramble to the other side of the island and sneak our way onto a ferry. Felicia being Felicia, she naturally has a number of fake ferry tickets just in case she ever has to get off the island and blend in with the natives. "I've just used the last of them on us three," she says when we take our seats in the ferry's café (technically, it's more of a bar, but that's a distinction not often made in some parts of the world - namely Europe.)
"Thanks," I whisper. Miles mutters something to the same effect.
Felicia offers to buy us drinks, but I insist on paying for my Coke and Miles' cherry limeade. Felicia, on the other hand, gets two cups of espresso con panna, downing them both like Jell-O shots or something. The smell of the rich, dark coffee tantalizes me, but it's too late in the day for me to have any - even with my accelerated metabolism, I've been known to stay wired till two in the morning just from drinking a single espresso at dinnertime. I think I'll just have to settle for a contact high instead.
"You okay, Miles?" I ask him as he stares out the window to his left, occasionally leaning down to sip his drink through his straw.
"I'll be better when I'm back home," he says after another minute of that behavior.
"Where you probably shouldn't stay," I say. "I mean...they grabbed you from your house, didn't they? Osborn's people?"
Miles shakes his head. "They found me in City Park, actually."
"Your mom take you there or something?"
Another head-shake. "I walked."
I whistle to myself. "That's a long walk. Up and down a bunch of hills, too."
"It's worth it," Miles says firmly. "I gotta train for the basketball team, man."
"You're still trying out next year?" I ask.
Miles nods. "It's easier to get in when you're an eighth-grader."
"I bet." For some reason, I still have what are obviously fake memories of Miles being twelve years old in San Castiel and still a little short for his age, maybe a year ago. Since then, though, he's grown above five feet, and, based on what he's shown me on his Instagram (which he created as soon as he turned thirteen, kind of like how Uncle Ben used to make jokes about me eventually having my first drink on my twenty-first), he's been improving his trick shots considerably.
"You're right, though," Felicia says to me, wiping whipped cream from her upper lip. "Vulture and Octavius would probably just find him all over again if we left him at home."
"That's who they sent to take you?" I ask Miles.
"I guess," he says. "One guy had a wing suit, and the other had these creepy metal tentacles that kept crushing the asphalt every time he took a step."
"That's them, all right," Felicia says. She shudders, then adds, "I can't believe I've managed to stay working with them this long."
"Are you saying-"
"Unless Norman decides to count himself as a member and not just our superior," Felicia says, "it's no longer the Sinister Six. Not anymore."
"He'll probably count himself," I say, shaking my head. "He's got a ridiculous ego, don't you think?"
YOU ARE READING
Deadpool Syndrome - Spider Soulmates
FanfictionPeter Parker's no longer the only one who's been bitten by a genetically-engineered spider. Norman Osborn has improved his formula and used not only himself, but also Harry and Gwen, as guinea pigs. And they're far from the last test subjects Norman...
