I don't own anything except any original character and/or any original plot.

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Chapter Twenty-Three: Hand in Hand

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A/n: Early update because I'm sad and your comments always cheer me up, lol. Don't forget about the Q&A that's going on!

~*~

"Misty, I need you to track down Kingpin's movements. Where's he gonna be tonight?"

"He's holding a gala in Spider-Man's honor, under his penthouse is the collider. Sending the best route to Wilson Fisk's address."

"Wilson Fisk is Kingpin? Oh!" I put the pieces together, remembering when the Wilson Fisk in our universe was arrested, and that it was Daredevil behind it. I mentally thanked Matt for doing that, considering how he was wreaking havoc in Miles' world.

"Guys, I have Fisk's location," I called to the front, "He's holding a gala tonight. How do we want to get there?"

"Bus," Older-Peter called back, landed lightly on the street, "Mine as well save some webs."

Bus... couldn't say Peter and I had done that before. But, we took the bus all the same- getting a lot of strange looks on the way. A lot of the day had passed by that point, and the gala had already started when we reached the stop closest to Kingpin's penthouse.

From the streets, we swung to the top of a crane across from the building, took a few more swings to the building, and landed on the glass roof to peek into the party and get a feel for what was happening.

"Kingpin has a private elevator entrance from his penthouse to the collider below," Peni stated.

Kingpin stood, flanked by guards he walked onto the stage at the front of the party, "Thank you, it's nice to be with you this evening to celebrate SpiderMan. He and I were very close. He was always a favorite of my son. Kids love Spider-Man, right? Still do."

"What a pig," Gwen growled.

"I'm right here," Ham glared.

"Hold on, get a load of how the waiters are dressed. It's in poor taste but-"

All the waiters were dressed like tacky Spider-Men with bowties. Going through my settings on my suit screens, I put in an image of the waiters and set the nanotech to "Water is Clear", a camouflage function. Out of our entire group, I was the only one who could blend in completely. At least the other Spider-Men were accurate though, Tsunami was stuck in her blue and white costume in the middle of the group so we could hide her.

Noir carried a serving tray, Older-Peter and Gwen pushed a large cart which covered SP//dr, and Tsunami was in between me and Peter as we flanked the back with Ham just in front of us.

"And I just want to thank Mary Jane Parker for being here this evening. Our prayers are with you Mrs. Parker."

"MJ?" Older-Peter spotted her in the crowd.

"I know it's sad that he and MJ got divorced in his dimension, but it's still weird that they were married and that she's a red-head," I whispered to Peter.

"Pay attention! It's not the same MJ, Peter," Gwen slapped his arm.

"This will just take one sec. Let me just- Oh!" Older-Peter turned and ran directly into MJ.

"Hello. Um, I just wondered if we could have some more bread at table twelve."

"Yeah! I'm just, I'm really sorry..."

"Oh, don't be sorry. It's just bread."

"No, I wasn't there for you when you needed me. And I didn't even try. I know I could do better if I just had another chance to give you... the bread that you deserve."

"We'll get that bread to you right away," I pushed Older-Peter out of the way and covered up Older-Peter's lapse in judgment.

"Thanks."

Gwen and I each put a hand on Peter's arm and pulled him away, through the service door that led to the kitchen and Kingpin's personal elevator. Sneaking through the halls, the Spiders webbed every guard we came across on the way.

When we stopped on the ceiling above Kingpin's office, the Spiders webbed the bodyguards that followed him. Noir shot a web that held open the elevator shaft, allowing us to slide down.

"Secondary ignition in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1."

The collider fired just as we entered the room, making our way through all the construction sets until we reached the catalyst area. Tsunami and I exchanged tired looks. Such a high-roofed, wide-set room would be a pain to move around in without the webbing abilities that all the Spider-Men had.

"Peter, you don't have to stay behind. I can do it," Gwen offered.

"It's okay. I've made up my mind." As everyone else swung to the ceiling, Tsunami and I used blobs of water to hold our bodies in place as we moved across, "I'll put the goober in and take over the beam. After you're gone, I'll blow it up. Good luck, guys."

Older-Peter crawled to the center of the room, where the control panel was. He pulled the panel off, but before he could insert the key, Gwen whispered, "They know we're here."

"Nice to see you again, Peter," Liv emerged from the ceiling, slamming Older-Peter away from the panel.

When we rushed to help Older-Peter, we were surrounded by the rest of Kingpin's henchmen. Throwing up an ice wall in front of myself, I shot my hands forward and threw my body to the platform where the majority of the agents were shooting at us. Tsunami landed right behind me and back to back we each took a side and easily took out every agent on the platform by either freezing them or throwing them off.

"Ah!" I screamed in pain when my body glitched.

"I got you," Tsunami was quick to step in front of me, taking over both sides while I caught my breath.

"Good, I'm good," I pushed myself up, "Let's finish this quickly."

Facing the final agents on our side, I curled my hand into a fist. They all stiffened, and with a jerk to the side, they all fell to the ground unconscious.

"How did you do that?" Tsunami questioned.

"Water in the body equals water we can control," I shrugged, shaking off the last bits of discomfort my morals felt from doing such a thing. Beck was wrong, and he'd always be wrong.

"Hey, look who's here!" Ham suddenly yelled.

Spider-Man, in a spray painted black and red suit, "Miles!"

He did it. He was doing everything on command, and really well too. His big moment must have happened, and not a moment too soon either.

Tsunami and I parted after that. I moved on to help Peter with his own section of thugs, yelling over all the surrounding noise to tell him that Miles had arrived and that everything was hopefully back on track.

Things got even crazier when the little box rose into the beam. That was the catalyst. After that, the tremors grew even larger. Different New Yorks began popping out of the portal, colliding together within the room.

"Let's go up," I pointed to the ceiling where Gwen, Miles, and Gwen were congregated.

When we reached the top, Tsunami stopped next Miles, "Hi. I'm (Y/n)."

"Miles."

Peter and I exchanged uncomfortable looks. We knew what those tones meant. It was just as weird as the other Peters marrying red-head MJ.

"We gotta get back up there. Shouldn't be too hard-"

Peter swung to the side as Liv threw a bus at us. Together, the six of us worked hand in hand to take down Liv, dodging when the others were striking, and striking when the others were dodging. It was a dream team of heroes that knew exactly what we were thinking.

Suddenly, one of Liv's tentacles hit Tsunami hard, and she fell back toward the beam. Miles dropped down after her, a hero without hesitation. The four of us who remained to fight Liv stopped for a split second to admire the scene proudly. Now I knew what Tony felt like whenever Peter and I did something right.

"Front, back, twice!" Older-Peter called back.

Our team split into pairs. Peter and I hit her in the front, and Gwen and Older-Peter got her from the back. With a steady punch to the face from each of us, she fell back and caught herself between two buildings.

"Buckle up guys, this is gonna take a while," Gwen prompted when she made her way back up.

Honk, honk!

It took no time at all for Liv to be hit by a bus. All of us winced in pain, but our sympathies quickly dissipated when Miles swung back up with Tsunami on his arm.

"I got this," Miles shared a nod with Tsunami.

"I'll go. I'm the one with the goo-"

Tsunami held it up having pickpocketed it, "Learned that from Logan. Let's go, Miles!"

"Don't watch the mouth. Watch the hands."

With that, Miles shot off a web and smoothly maneuvered his way through the chaos in the room. It was perfect, and Tsunami was there to watch his back when something got a little too close.

"We taught him that, right?" Older-Peter asked in awe.

"I didn't teach him that. And you definitely didn't."

"Guys! I got control of the beam! Get up here!"

Our group swung up to the panel, joining Miles as he coordinated the portal.

"Guess this is it."

"Well, nice to know we're not alone," Peni smiled.

All of us shared sad looks. We wanted to go home, but parts of us wanted to stay.

Miles twisted the goober, "I got the portal open. You first Peni."

"Thank you, Miles. From both of us." She jumped into the beam. Miles punched in another code and looked to Noir.

"I, uh, love you all," he held up the Rubik's cube, "I'm taking this cube thing with me. I don't understand it, but, I will."

Ham held up a huge mallet, "I want you to have this. It'll fit in your pocket." Miles took it, "That's all folks." He jumped.

"Is he allowed to say that? Legally?"

Us next. I nudged Miles' shoulder gently, "Never forget to do the right thing, no matter what the world says. You have a good heart, and that's what makes a hero."

"You're gonna do great things," Peter added, "Better than us." There was Peter's parallel to Tony. I would have cried if we weren't in such a hurry to get home.

"Bye guys," we grabbed each other's hands and jumped.

In the portal, we had more time to observe our surroundings. It was very blue and red, but there was something else. Little comics of everyone, and there was ours.

Our names are (Y/n) (L/n) and Peter Parker, and for years, we've been Spider-Man and Riptide. Our universe may have a lot more heroes than others, but we wouldn't change it for the world. We've never been alone, but now, we have people who understand us more than anyone else. Leaving them was hard, but hand in hand, we can take on the world.

~*~

We woke up on the same rooftop we got sucked into the different universe on. Sitting up, we shared relieved laughs and a hug. Looking down at my body, I was relieved to find that I looked like a normal person again, not a hyper-realistic cartoon.

"We're back!"

"Misty-"

"It's been around twenty hours. It's current sunset of the next day. Time worked differently in the other dimension."

"Thank god. Misty said it's only been around a day, so no one has missed us much."

Standing, we looked across the rooftop and gasped in realization. We were so caught up in our excitement to be home, that we completely forgot about why we were there in the first place. Harry!

Peter swung us across to his roof, and the door leading inside was unlocked. Stepping cautiously inside the home, we called out Harry's name. There was no answer. We continued to explore the dark house, looking for any signs of life, but there was nothing. Bernard had retired during the school year, and Harry had been left alone.

Alone. Was that the cause of everything? Peter and I had gone through our own journeys to realize we didn't have to go through anything alone, but Harry didn't have that. He didn't meet his interdimensional counterparts and realize that no matter how alone he felt, there'd always be someone somewhere who'd understand. He didn't have that.

"Holy shit. (Y/n) get over here," Peter called me into Norman's old study.

"Oh my god."