E. 9 2 8
nueva york

"So this is the HQ?" Nai asked with wide eyes, turning in a 180 degrees to take it all in. Then he cleared his throat with a shrug. "I mean it's not bad. Advanced, but not too crazy compared to the one in our basement, right Gi?"

After taking care of Goblin in Peter's dimension, the twins followed the two Spidermen through a portal. Similar to the one Miguel crashed through. Gema shook her head with crossed arms. "I don't know Nai, I think we might have some competition." She said while glancing at the accessory on her wrist. "The watches were already impressive."

A scoffed came from Miguel while he adjusted Goblin who was resting on his shoulder like a sack of flour. "Show them around while I take care of the anomaly." Miguel instructed to Peter with the wave of his finger circling in the air.

"On it!" Peter piped, giving him a salute.

Watching Miguel leave, disappearing through the hallway, she only had more questions. What was this all about? The taller Spiderman entered into an elevator type function. The pattern of textile pixels caught her eye, realizing his mask faded. The absence letting her get a glimpse of dark messy hair before the door closed shut.

The clap of Peter's hands startled Gema. Her spider senses failing to warn her as it does from time to time.

"Well! HQ isn't much yet. It's only been about a month and the building is almost done being remodeled. But I'll show you what we've got so far!" Peter began to guide them down the hall. He took off his mask, then he pointing at the twins. "Oh, and you can take your masks off. You're secret identities are safe here."

Gema looked at Nai, as if to double check for permission. He only shrugged at her, pressing the button behind his ear to expose his face. His hair was kept in a man-bun, while some hair falling out of place. Gema followed, her long hair draping past her shoulders. The tips slightly wet from the fight.

Following Peter, the twins followed him to a threshold until a beeping noise causes the door to part automatically. Once her eyes adjusted from the light, Gema's lips parted. Nai, on the other hand, let his jaw drop until a smile managed to take over as the two trailed behind Peter who led the way.

Gema returned her focus to the grand open space. There were walkways intertwined, mimicking a web. The architecture unbelievable and truly nothing like she had seen before. It made a mall with multiple escalators that crisscrossed back in Neuphrates look like nothing. She craned her neck to see how far up the building went up. It was like the Paolympire State Building, but this construction seemed taller.

"No way!" She heard Nai gasp through a laugh. "Come take a look at this Gema!"

He stood near the railing with his head down. Gema joined him, peaking her head over to see the same pattern from above continue below. The building seemed to be endless

"Wow." Gema said in awe of the facility. "That's alot of feet."

Gema couldn't take that statement for granted, due to the strange spark in her chest. Being in the presence of other Spidermen. Most of them having the same colors as Peter, a few had different alterations. Gema remembered hearing theories declare there were vast variations in the multiverse, but she was standing in the truth of it. Then again, was it all just a dream?

"It's great isn't it!?" Peter chuckled at their reactions. "Though there's only about 20 of us right now. Miguel's hoping to recruit a ton of more Spiders soon!"

She titled her head. "What for?" Gema asked.

Peter shrugged with a crinkle in his nose, his hand dismissing the concern. "It's a long story. But to give you a little preview, since Miguel's probably going to give you the run down, the multiverse is basically uh.... a mess right now."

Mess? Gema didn't know why, but fear pinched inside her from that word. Taking the questions she already had and creating more, like that Greek mythology monster she read about once. The hydra. No matter how hard she tried to cut off a question, two or in this case a billion grew back.

"It explains why you and Goblin got sucked into my dimension." Peter pointed at Nai who was still acting like a child at a theme park, unlike his sister. "Along with the glitching and all that stuff." He explained.

"Impressive." Nai said with the raise of his eyebrows, now walking alongside Peter. "So tell me more about your dimension. Is your city Neuphrates too?"

While the two Spiderman conversed about New York, Gema was still trying to process the past couple of hours. Her mind still spinning with question after question. So focused that she didn't pick up the upcoming collision.

"Ah!" Gema panicked, grabbing onto the other persons elbows to keep them from being knocked over. "So sorry about that-"

Excepting to see another Spiderman, but to her surprise, that wasn't the case at all. Instead she met a woman dressed in a color scheme of mostly black and red. The material of her super suit was close to leather. To complete the look, bright yellow glasses mimicked the eyes of a mask like the others. The shades matched the color of the spider symbol on the front of the suit with a scarlet headband supporting a giant afro on the top of the head. Right as she tilted her head, that strange spark went off again. The same one she experienced when meeting Miguel and Peter.

"Oh you're all good hun! I'm Jessica Drew." The woman said with a smirk as she holds out a hand for Gema to shake.

"I'm Gema Aegeus, and that's my twin brother, Nai." Gema said with her head nodding towards her matching partner. "Cool glasses."

"Thanks, nice suit." She returns with a compliment and sends a wink.

"Hey Jess!"

Peter looked over his shoulder, stopping his conversation with Nai. Which somehow the topic went from the multiverse to favorite cereals and how the brands differ between the dimensions

"Meet the Spidertwins!" Peter introduced with his arms hanging around both of their necks.

Jess rose an eyebrow. "Twins, huh? That means in your dimension, the bad guys have to deal with double trouble." She said.

Nai tilted his head. "You could say that."

"This is my brother Nai." Gema added. "He carries most of the trouble."

"Hey!" He scoffed.

"I'm sure you two are both alright." Peter patted Nai's shoulder. "Jess here, got recruited on the same day as me when the strikeforce was only a week old."

Jess shook her head while putting a finger up in the air. "I got here a few days before you did."

Peter shrugged with the click of his tongue. "Eh, close enough. How's the baby?"

"The what now!?" Nai exclaimed in shock, dropping the scowl at Gema.

The twins eyes widened at the sight, only making her like Jess even more. Another Spiderwoman was one thing, but one that was pregnant? Gema couldn't wrap that around her brain. But she had respect nonetheless.

Jess snickered at the reactions with a hint of pride. "It's the usual. How about MJ and your little one on the way?"

"Ready to pop soon." Peter replied with long sigh and rubbing his forehead as if the mention of the topic took out all his previous high energy. "Our baby girl is already handful. So many restless nights from so much activity in the womb and-"

"That's enough Peter," Jess cut him off before it got to detailed. "Can I join the tour? Someone's gotta make sure this Spiderwoman isn't surrounded by all you men." She sent Gema another wink.

Gema smiled as if the other Spiderwoman gave more assurance. "I wouldn't mind that."

"Why not!" Peter piped, his animated persona lit up once again.

"I think we'll get along well, Gema Aegeus." Jess grinned. "Ooo! She's not a Spiderwoman, but you need to meet Lyla! I know she's also going to like having you around too." Her face sparked while grabbing Gema's forearm.

"Lyla?" Nai tilted his head with a scoff and roll of his eyes.

"Lyla!" Jess called out.

A flash of yellow and orange glitches appeared in mid-air, forming a small woman. She wore a white coat, hair cut in a short bob along with giant heart shades.

"Ah!" Nai gasped, moving behind his sister who was now a shield.

Gema looked over her shoulder with a teasing squint. "Don't be a guppy." She giggled.

"Shut up, Gema." Nai sent her a glare, knowing she was adding this moment onto list to bring back up later for a future debate.

"Nice to meet you guppy." She played along, the tiny woman greet them with a shrug, unamused Nai's reaction. It took all of Gema's mental capacity to hold in another laugh, impressed by Lyla's comeback as if it was second nature.

"Lyla here is Miguel's Artificial Intelligence." Jess confirmed.

"Yep." Lyla popped the 'p'. "I keep things at HQ run smoothly and also help Miguel monitor the multiverse."

That last word in the sentence reminded Gema of that unsettling feeling from before. It scared her and she didn't know why.

"Let's keep going." Peter said, moving the tour into a cafeteria that resembled a food court in a mall or amusement park.

A combination of smells clashed into Gema's senses. Some didn't exactly mix well together, but it still made whatever fresh dish in the venues desirable. The scent of cooking steam alone made her want to stuff her face and dig into the variety of flavors and seasoning.

"Lot's of good options for food!" Peter announced, his hand gesturing to the different stands. "Oh! Especially the burgers! Those are to die for!"

"We also got empandas, pastas, sandwiches, fried chicken," Lyla pointed out while hopping to each stand.

"Gyros?" Nai asked

Now Gema was really craving that same thing. It made her think of something else that never failed to melt in her mouth. "Or how about pork or teriyaki chicken served sticky rice and with some ube?" She swooned just even thinking about the burst of savory flavors.

Peter snapped and pointed his finger at Gema. "I like the sound of that."

Jess sighed. "Unfortunately, we don't have either of those that I'm aware of." She glanced at Lyla for confirmation.

"Not yet." Lyla corrected, her fingers taping on a mini screen near her. "But I could get that arranged. I'm sure the boss wouldn't mind."

Nai scoffed. "Michael? Or whatever his name was."

"Close," Jess shook her head, still not amused by his humor. "But it's Miguel."

The mention of his name, got Gema to think back to meeting Miguel on the beach. Her mind full of questions ever since.

"Who is he again?" Gema asked for clarification to satisfy her curiousity of the guy.

"Miguel?" Jess said. "He's the one who came up with this idea to recruit Spider people to his dimension to help manage the multiverse."

"You mean he came up with, all of it?" Gema asked as she continued to look around, trying to figure out how this all came to be from a single mind. Jess looked back at Gema with a simple nod to confirm that assumption about the Spiderman of this dimension.

"This place is incredible, Nai." Gema stated. She knew that he would be so astonished.

"It's crazy!" Nai whispered back, letting out his inner child on Christmas.

The two sharing a grin of amazement, now leaving the wide open space of bridges and Spiderpeople swinging around, the twins found themselves in a more contained hallway. Missing the brightness of the natural daylight from the lack of windows. But maintaining a hue from the technology scattered among the desks.

Trailing behind Jess and Peter, the twins approached few orange cubes with strange figures inside. Gema recognized one to be another version of Mysterio. Then she saw another person trapped in the seal orange containment as well, looked like Doc-Octopus but his tentacles were mechanical instead.

"These are all villains from different universes?" Nai observed, breaking the silence, suspicions grew as he rose an eyebrow. Becoming just as curious, Gema looked at all of the criminals locked up until her eyes fell on the one she never wanted to see again.

"And why is she here?" She asked, pointing at the beaten down woman wearing green and purple.

"Because she's an anomaly." A voice answered for her.

Gemas mind was so fixed on her enemy she didn't notice the person next to the cell. Recognizing that tone and the textiles of his Spiderman suit, Gema realized it was Miguel. He tapped his fingers across a holographic keypad persistently as dark hair was no longer contained under his mask. Long strands swooped down to the sides with loose curls behind his ears.

"Which means what?" Nai asked, fishing for an explanation.

Miguel released a heavy breath of air with a rise and fall of his shoulders. He then turned around to face the new Spiders. Revealing his facial appearance; His skin a soft bronze and his eyes, an unnatural red, but in this lighting they were close to a maroon. He could qualify to be a runway model for Thea's fashion company if he worked on his build. That, or maybe a terrorizing rugby player that wouldn't hesitate to rail an opponent.

When he was at a fair distance from the group, he planted his feet and placed his hands on his hips. "The biggest kind of threat to the multiverse." He stated.

"Right." Nai nodded with an eye roll, crossing his arms in frustration. "I think we figured that out so far genius."

"Shut up, Nai!" Gema hissed at her brother in spite of not wanting to get of Miguel's bad side.

Miguel only raised an eyebrow. Holding a condescending gaze that felt like judgement was being stabbed into her chest. She retreated to look at her fingers and fidget with a scab she found by one of her nails.

Nai dismissed Gema's attempt to keep things calm as he scoffed. "So uh, when are you going to explain what the shell is going on?"

Miguel shifted his eyes to Nai as if to accept the challenge no one else knew or cared about.

"Lyla?" Miguel called as the AI woman appeared next to him. "Pull up the thing."

"So the multiverse is breaking because of guy named Kingpin messed with dark matter?" Gema asked, with his hand glued onto his chin as the presentation ended.

"Yep." Peter confirmed. "I met the guy and he was a bit dramatic about it."

"And because of that, a bunch of villains from are getting randomly sucked into counter-universes?" Nai added.

"Exactly." Miguel said with a confirming nod.

"That's amazing! It's like a multiverse protection force?" Nai exclaimed with a bright smile and hands smacking on the top of his head like his brain just exploded. "How many have you caught since you began this little squad?"

"Do you ever run out of questions?" Miguel sighed pressing his lips into a line.

Although she had plenty of questions herself, Gema shook her head that it was her brother getting the critic. She huffed out a single puff, trying not to laugh and be discrete as possible. But then Miguel moved his eyes on her, not impressed that she interrupted.

"Uh carry on." She said wavering her hand in a gesture and looking away.

"You two," Miguel continued before glancing towards his colleagues. "Are needed and responsible to help protect the multiverse before all of time and space collapses."

"Sounds good." Nai said impulsively. "We are in!"

Breaking her stare, Gema whipped her head towards the outspoken decision her brother had said. Gema let out a nervous chuckle holding up a finger.

"Excuse us for a moment." She said before yanking Nai by the arm, swerving him so both of their backs were facing the group.

"What the shell, Gi?" Nai spat.

"Nai, what are you thinking!?" She whispered in a scold. "Are you sure you want to get involved with this?

"Gema, think about it." Nai scoffed as if she was missing the bigger picture. "We join this, then we don't have to be the only ones. We do some good without being villainized everyday by the police or your ex-boss." Nai said.

With that logic, it did make sense. She just lost her job and didn't have much going for her since Carter died which only implanted anxiety to her mind.

Gema sighed. "But what if being apart of this can do more harm than good?"

Maybe that was the reason this whole idea made her cautious? Or was just an excuse? Gema wasn't sure. The words coming out of her mouth revealing more than her thoughts.

"Yeah but-"

"This is multiverse Nai! It's not Neuphrates. Saving other dimensions? That's a concept we know a very small amount of."

Nai raised his eyebrows. "That's why we take advantage of this opportunity to learn more." He said, persistent to reason this chance for a new life. "Not to mention we can know what to do if another black hole thing sucks up one of us again like Goblin."

Gema didn't want to admit it, but it was a valid point.

"You two done yet?" Miguel intervened.

Looking over her shoulder, his tone matching his impatient stance with a small frown.

"Yep," Nai nodded before shoving his sister forwards. "Gema you got something to say?"

Dragging Nai back to Neuphrates and forgetting this whole thing was extremely tempting after he threw her under the bus like that. Regaining her balance from unexpected push, Gema stood cowardly in front of the other three Spiders. But she wasn't worried about Peter or Jess. It was Miguel's impatient demand for answer. A bored look resting on his face, brought more pressure to say something. Say anything.

"Well um," Gema hesitated, processing her thoughts. Joining this strikeforce was nonsense to her. "We accept the offer to join."

What are you doing Gema Aegeus!?

"Gunfunnit." She curse as her words betrayed her with the scrunch of her nose, shutting her eyes that was followed by a hiss through her teeth.

An arm wrapping around her out of nowhere almost gave her a heart attack, only to realize it was Peter. "Don't worry Gema, you're going to love it!" He exclaimed.

Nai sent his sister a smile, earning a frown back. The lack of a verbal comeback, was enough to warn Nai not to rub it in.

"Oh I know that look, it's the same one MJ gives me sometimes." Peter chuckled as he leaned towards Nai.

As Peter went on about his wife, Gema could of swore she heard a huff from her right. Or was she just imaging the twitch of a smirk on Miguels lips?

"...And then MJ almost hit me with a frying pan for pranking her with a web-grande in the doorway and-"

Clearing his throat, the three returned their attention to Miguel. His stoic face leaving no evidence any other expression. Peter backed away, giving an encouraging pat on the twins' shoulders. He made a hand gesture, signaling Miguel to continue.

"First thing you two need to do is get this one back to your dimension." Miguel explained while nodding his head back to the Goblin. "Then you return in a day or two."

Nai hummed in understanding as he put his hand on his chin. "Doesn't seem too bad. I'm sure Gema can, but I can't just drop my job at Aquamax."

A glimmer of recognition yet disgust, glimmered in Miguels eyes. Then he answered in a sigh. "You can-"

"Give me both you're daily schedules." Lyla cut in. "I can then arrange shifts for you that won't interfere with your dimension commitments. Besides, we are flexible with that too."

Miguel looked at his AI in annoyance, his hands on his hips tightening. "Thanks Lyla."

"When do you want us to start?" Gema asked warily.

Miguel's eyes glanced back at her, analyzing. Gema felt that intense sharpness of embarrassment as if she was speaking stupidity.

He let out another sigh, moving his attention to her brother.

"The sooner the better."

ꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀꕀ

Woot woot!! They are offically recruited and we will be seeing more of the Spiderverse now!! Except did you catch no explanation of Canon Events? No Mayday yet? There's a reason. Hehe.

- marie xoxo