TROUBLE !
vi. the spiders and the stray.

ALCHAMEX WAS AN ominous building deisgned with intricate security at every entrance of it's translucent walls. The structure of laboratories was hidden deep within Hudson Valley, captured in a plethora of fresh autumn leaves that decorated the trees in a timid amber.

Early morning swallowed the skyline in an idyllic stream of pale blue and gold that dusted over the cloudy horizon, a scene almost too good to be true as it blanketed over Brooklyn. As presumably always, cars began to pull into the large parking lot, ready to start their day of work inside the building.

Prior to arriving at the location, Felicity and Gwen had sacrificed a good night's worth of sleep to investigating further into the matter at hand; uncovering how to acquire an overdrive key. And given their new mission, the two changed quickly into their suits before departing from Visions academy, never to step foot inside the school again.

Soon after leaving the academy, the two found themselves sitting on the back middle seats of a large 'Hudson valley explorer' bus, receiving thoughtful and questioning gazes from people around them, albeit not many considering it was quite early in the morning. However after a quick inspection and conclusion that the girls were probably some overexcited fans on their way to a convention, people continued on with their own business.

Arriving outside the display of alchemax labs, snow was quick to greet them as it landed in a soft peacefulness that coated the autumn hills. It created a foreign sense of serenity in the atmosphere, barren of distress or enragement like Brooklyn had been suffocated in only a day prior. For a moment, it almost reminded the two of their Brooklyn.

The bus echoed with a creak as it came to a stop, allowing the sea of different passengers to get off of the vehicle and approach the structure of laboratories. The doors had been recently opened to allow members of alchemax to pass through, subsequently providing an open gateway inside the laboratories for the two girls to enter with ease.

Not getting caught out was the hard part. But, as always, a plan was quick to be set into motion.

For the most part, people stuck to their own agenda with little notice for the girls as they entered amongst the sea of other youthful apprentices. Entirely because only moments after entering, the two had slipped away from the group of curious onlookers and snuck through an empty hallways. Once out of sight from the large crowd in the main lobby, finding a way to blend in was the next priority.

A dull silence engulfed the pristine corridors that shone with an almost blinding translucency that was a few shades lighter than painful. The clicking of shoes resounded as a talking duo of scientists strolled in a mindless conversation, clipboards tight in their grips whilst one hand was outstretched in a talkative gesture.

The woman nodded as she listening to her companion. Her age appeared no older than thirty yet no more youthful than twenty-five. A polite smile plastered across her lips as she responded quickly, "it was Dr. Edwards' theory about injecting the vile into the human body that predicts a more positive outcome. Of course, that is if Dr. Octavius proceeds with it."

Her companion nodded, "Do you not think--"

The man was cut off with a yelp as his feet were swept out from under him, a streak of illuminated silver flashing into his view. His hand skimmed the edge of his high-tech, energy-powered weapon before a hiss escaped his throat, an overwhelming state of drowsiness poisoning his senses as his hands clawed at the small gadget on the side of his neck.

A diamond-shaped device clicked with activation, sending a small needle into the side of his neck, narrowly avoiding his artery. Inside the needle, a small yet powerful dose of an unnamed sedative overwhelmed his senses. It's fast-acting liquid leaving him temporarily paralysed before his body shut down, landing him unconscious on the floor.

His partner gasped in surprise, hand reaching into her white lab coat to pull out a handgun. Caught by surprise, her reaction appeared too slow as a sickening crack emitted from her wrist whilst a silver-tipped boot slammed into her. Before she could retain her strength, a string of specially-designed silk spurred towards her, taping over her lips in a web of satin, stealing any sign of sound from her lips as her hands were met with the same fate, wrists locked together in an unbreakable hold.

Landing with an unidentifiable grace, the woman watched as the suit-clad figures of two girls stood before her. With a pearly gleam in her cherry-tinted smirk, the vigilante in black beamed at her accomplice, who glanced back at her with a look of mocking judgement.

"Was that necessary?" Asked the blonde, one hand on her hip whilst the other gestured to the unconscious man on the floor.

Felicity shrugged, leaning down on one of her legs to grab the woman's handgun. "Better safe than sorry, Gwenny." She contrasted whilst grabbing the gun, "I'll be taking that, thank you very much." She gleamed.

Gwen huffed, summoning a string of webbed silk to attach to the knocked-out man whilst using one of her legs to kick open a nearby door. With a glance of relief to see the emptiness of the room, Gwen glanced back to the dark-haired girl, "c'mon, bring her over here. If anyone sees us, we're dea—Felice."

The fifteen year old watched with a displeased gaze, eyebrows raised and a slight frown. Im front of her, a tight-lipped Felicity glanced downwards briefly to the, now, unconscious woman who only seconds prior had attempted to stun her with a taser. On the side of her neck, the black device storing the sedative beeped frequently before stopping as it was injected into her body.

"She tried to tase me..."

To Felicity's surprise, she was rendered without a lighthearted scold. Instead, Gwen simply webbed a hand of silk that attached to the lady's abdomen, tugging her and the man along into the empty room whilst her best friend deactivated the two security cameras as they turned robotically.

After storing the two in the room, their lab coats were quickly stolen by the two girls as they used them to disguise their suits. They were slightly too big given the age difference between them and the adults, but nevertheless, they were shrugged on swiftly.

Plucking the square-shaped glasses from the man's upper face, Felicity slipped them onto the top of Gwen's head, "Here, put these on." She said, whilst kneeling to pull the wide white headband from the woman's head and placing it over her own.

"Why do I have to wear these?" Gwen asked, pulling them from her head and glancing at them briefly before looking to her friend.

Fixing the headband on her head, Felicity responded absentmindedly, "you know, sophistication and all. Makes you look smarter and all that jazz." She shrugged, her tone turning playful as she added, "Not that I'm saying you're not already a total genius, Gwenny."

Gwen made a humming sound of approval, "Well, I'd hope not," her eyes glanced down to the name card on Felicity's jacket, "--Dr. Diana."

The dark-haired girl laughed lightly whilst linking their arms together, "Never would I even dream of it, Dr. Riley." She mocked as they exited the room, hiding the bodies under nearby desks to avoid them being noticed. Out of curiosity for the next stage of the plan, she asked, "So, what's the next step in this master plan of yours? We're not splitting up again—don't even suggest that."

"You can relax, I wasn't going to," Gwen denied with a dramatic sigh, "You said that collider was designed here, right? That means the blueprints, the structure design, and the way to send us back home has got to be here too." She stated, turning the next corridor which looked strikingly familiar to the prior.

With a scoff, Felicity's lip curled upwards distastefully. "See, I think we'd be actually able to do that if this place wasn't a fucking maze." She grumbled, green eyes narrowed at her surroundings as a shiver threatened to coat her spine at the new presence.

"Excuse me, Girls!"

The two froze as the voice raspy of a woman reached their ears, the sound of quickened footsteps arriving swiftly. The two turned slowly, watching the female scientist with curls of luscious chestnut locked together with coils of lavender accentuating the vibrancy of her narrow features and wide eyes burning with inquisitiveness, approach. Over her nose two large octagon's lived in the shape of her glasses, almost comically large as they swallowed her complexion.

Her gaze, overwhelming with the shade of hazel; a rugged mixture of brown and green that formed together in a dim hue, narrowed at the two girls, her grip tight on the bicycle beside her as she clicked her jaw in curiosity. "Are you two supposed to here?" Asked the head scientist, Olivia Octavius. "You two look awfully young to be in here." She judged, "what are you doing here?"

"We're interns!" Gwen piped swiftly, nodding her head in certainty as she nudged the dark-haired girl to continue their alibi.

Leaning forward with speculation, Dr. Olivia frowned. "Interns aren't allowed beyond the lobby unless supervised by a guide. Where's your guide? Did they send you down here?"

Plastering on an overly sweet smile, Felicity made a sound of disagreement. "No, ma'am, we left our jackets on the coach and we were talking to the driver when we went to retrieve them, and.." she clicked her fingers in mocking recollection signalling Gwen to continue their improvised lie.

"And by the time we got inside our group had already begun, so one of the scientist in the lobby directed us down the first corridor to the left and straight on from there." Gwen improvised, a youthful smile, which could only ever be too good to be true, painted her lips.

Dr. Olivia raised an unimpressed eyebrow, assuming the girls were two reckless teens who took advantage of their trip and strayed too far from their companions. "So instead you took the third corridor to the left?"

Felicity's eyes widening at Gwen's slip up, "we're really sorry." She quickly apologised, hand gripping Gwen's sleeve and tugging her slightly backwards in the direction that they came. "We'll go back straight away. Sorry for bothering you, ma'am." She gave the woman a tight-lipped smile as she tugged Gwen in the closest direction.

"Wrong way."

With a deep inhale, Felicity glanced at the woman with faux apology. "Sorry." She hissed, her voice slightly too harsh with irritation of the woman's constant sneer and wide-eyed stare. Turning in the direction they came, the two girls huddled together as they walked.

Whispering to avoid the woman from hearing, Gwen gritted her teeth with a light shake of her head. "God, she freaks me out."

"Tell me about it." Felicity replied quietly, glancing over her shoulder briefly to watch the woman spare them one last glance of curiosity before continuing on her journey.

Without another glance the two girls continued on. With more precision to stay quiet and avoid attention, the girls skimmed their way through the structure of building desperate for any detail that could lead them to the creation of the supercollider, only to be left without any clues.

To match the bad luck diluting the green-eyes girls veins, they were left clueless, forced to wonder effortlessly as each clue they thought they could find turned out to be a dead end. It left the two of them trailing a wild goose chase of running in circles, building upon their frustration.

Felicity rambled in annoyance as they strolled through the next corridor, eyebrows furrowing at the ravenous commotion emitting from the room. She grimaced as the sound of shattering scarred the atmosphere, tension flooding in endless waves from the room as the wall collapsed in a heap of translucent fragments, twinkling with the next as it painted the floor in a broken illusion.

A shocked yelp fell past Gwen's lips as a red and blue-clad body slammed harshly into her own, the impact of a briefcase colliding with her stomach painfully and leaving her sat on the ground. She fell backwards with a gasp, her body clashing to the floor as Felicity's eyes widened in concern. "Oh my god, Gwe—oh my god!"

To her surprise, the identifiable brown-eyed stare and glimmer of remembrance was enough for Felicity to recognise the boy behind the spiderman costume. Miles fucking Morales. He trembled in apprehension as his eyes flashed at the presence of the two unmasked girls. "Trouble?" He nicknamed, shuffling backwards slightly.

"Morales?" The girl furrowed her eyebrows, kneeling to assist a wide-eyed Gwen. He recoiled in surprise, not having expected her to recognise him behind his childish disguise. However, he never had the opportunity to question the two as he turned back to the sound of his male accomplice's voice clashing with Dr. Olivia, who had now taken the form of Doc Ock.

"Okay, this is a little bit bad--" Grunted out the older spiderman as he was forced harshly through the glass of the next wall, his figure swiftly followed by the lime-tinted arms, mimicking that of an octopus', of Doc Ock's as her voice overpowered his, "you're chatty!"

Miles flashed with pellucidity, the ambience of his blue and red spiderman costume glittering under the fluorescent lighting before his body disappeared from view, the boy having turned completely invisible. He glanced back momentarily, his pupils shaking as he did so, before he set off in a sprint with one last call of departure, "Gotta Go!"

With matching stares of utter surprise, the two girls glimpsed at each other with certain nods. "Let's go."

━━━━━━━━━━

"NICE, MILES!" Yelled Peter B, his voice consumed with pride for his young protégé. He cackled with delight despite of their current predicament, his movements smooth in a strive to match the younger boy's pace.

Underneath the costume, Miles smiled in gratitude at Peter's appreciation. It allowed a circulation of warmth to spread through his body, cancelling out the tender iciness of the snow dusting the trees and the once grassy valleys below. It seemed after meeting the readable enigma that was, Peter B. Parker, Miles' life had taken a turn in the direction of adrenaline-fused mayhem.

Less than twenty-four hours prior, whilst Miles had mourned the fresh gravestone of his Peter Parker, his shoulder had been grazed by the soft touch of a foreign hand. Caught up in panic, the Morales boy had temporarily stunned the man in a state of paralysation. However, with the quick interrogation of who he was ( and a small question about the added weight on his stomach ), Miles and Peter B. Found themselves to be quite the pair.

The boy laughed with satisfactory bliss, his hand wrapped securely in a vine of webbed silk that had been departed in a strengthened manner from the device attached to his wrist, making home on the closest tree before the cycle was repeated. "I'm doing it!" He rejoiced with victorious enthusiasm.

Matching the younger boy's deserved joy, Peter B beamed with fatherly fondness, "Good, you're doing it! Double tap to release and thwhip it out again." He mentored as they swung through the stream of amber leaves, their free hands gripping onto the alchemax briefcase in their shared hold.

"Okay!"

"Thwip and release." Peter B instructed with encouragement as he glanced to the boy. Together in sync, the two replayed the sequence in rhythm with the other as they scaled through the forest. "You're a natural! Thwip and release! Feel the rhythm?"

With a motivated cheer, Miles laughed in delight, "Thwip and release!" He repeated his mentor's words, a newfound confidence lacing into his tone and making home on the tip of his tongue as he released a cheer of adoration.

Watching his movements, the older male continued to encourage his movements. "Good, Miles!" He gleamed, nodding his head in truthful honesty of his words.

"I gotta say," Miles voiced loudly, "You're amazing, Man!" He complimented, awe replacing his youthful twinkle that gleamed oh-so brightly in his amber-shaded eyes.

"We're a little team!" The older man exclaimed, a paternal excitement pouring into his words as the foreign experience of mentoring the boy had begun to take a toll on his heartstrings. "Me as the teacher who could still do it. You as the student who can do it, just not as good." He emphasised absentmindedly before quickly adding, "I'm proud of us! Is there anything you wanna say to m--"

Disrupting their moment of serenity, the older man's figure spurred in a motion of vivacious activity, colours pouring through his body in an endless flow of multicoloured shapes and glitching colours. A sight Miles had come to recognise, as it had happened to her only two days prior.

Landing harshly onto a tree branch below, the air in Peter's lungs was sucked from his body as he winced loudly in agony, his mind left momentarily blank from the glitch his body had been forced to endure. Due to his fall, the briefcase slipped from their shared grip, instead sent falling at impossible speeds to the harsh snow below.

"Peter!" The man's name slipped from Miles' lips in a soft concern as he grabbed onto the branch Peter had fallen onto, his other hand grappling swiftly with the weight of the wire attached to the case, which had slowly begun to break away from the device, falling to what would surely be it's demise.

With a frightening crack, the branch snapped away from its counterpart of the tree, sending the two males plummeting downwards towards the hills of snow intertwined with the trees. With an outstretched hand only seconds away from gripping the case, a mechanical arm fastened onto it and snatched it from Peter B's grip.

Only feet away from the frosty floor, the two spidermen were saved from a cruel landing by a long string of satin webs that caught onto their limbs, throwing them back into a cobweb design between the trees. Exclaims of surprise caught past their throats in waves on confusion as vines of string, much like their own, held them in place.

With elegant agility and divine stamina, the two were left astounded as a glimpse of white and black burned through the atmosphere, teal ballet slippers standing out against her unique suit. Her movements were pointed and sharp, a deep rooted sense of beauty encasing with the grace of her actions.

Yet she wasn't the only sight to see, as a streak of moonlit delicacy dived through the trees in a manoeuvred glow of charmed chaos. With smooth white highlighting the darkness of her suit and her hair streaming down like sheets of the night sky, Miles' eyes widened in recognition. "You gotta be kidding me!" He shrieked, earning an odd look from his mentor who continued to pester him with questions of, 'who?'

Gliding through the trees with her octopus-like tentacles, Doc Ock watched in amazement as the two danced through the trees in a modern waltz. Her eyes widened behind her green-tinted goggles, a grin of pure astonishment encasing her lips as she moved closer to get a more observant glance at the two masked vigilantes.

Their actions created an illusion of intwined technique, using the other as instrument to execute their flawless exercise. The spiderwoman laced a coil of smooth webs that swallowed the older woman's tentacle whole, locking her against the nearest tree as she repeated the action with another green arm.

Broadening her back slightly, the girl ducked her head as a pair of gloves hands rested over her middle back. With a perplexing state of accuracy, the second vigilante flipped herself over the spiderwoman, a graceful twist occurring as she slammed the soul of her foot into the woman's jaw, sending her backwards as she processed the bruising that would form.

Twisting like a bewitching snowflake amongst a sea of snow, the spiderwoman glided along the snowy floor before lunging back up again and landing one final kick to the woman, which landed her swiftly unconscious. As she did so, the black cat was quick to secure the briefcase from her grip before coming to a final stop in front of the two males.

Pulling off the silk mask of pearly whiteness, the blonde grinned at the sight before her. "Hey, guys." Her voice greeted smoothly, no sign of struggle from her recent actions evident in her soft tone.

"Gwanda?" Miles asked in pure shock, his jaw falling open in surprise behind the children's mask he adorned. He glanced briefly to the girl beside her, his heart hammering in realisation.

Releasing a breath of amusement, Gwen winced with furrowed eyebrows. "It's Gwen, actually." She corrected, glancing over his awkward position with her pale eyes.

Beside her, the black cat's mask was discarded to reveal two glistening emerald eyes, vibrant with playfulness as she leaned forward on the tips of her toes. "Well, don't you look adorable." She snickered, the pads of her gloved fingers coming to rest under Miles' chin as she grinned blissfully.

"Felicia?" He named, soft eyes illuminated with surprise. He silently cursed himself for not trusting his instincts the first time he had met the persona of Felicia Amber. He should've identified the twinkle of green that haunted a new page of his sketch book, should've taken notice to their unwavering similarities.

He watched a grin envelop over her lips as she tilted her head at him. "Close enough, Spidey. But it's actually Felicity." She corrected before standing back up to her full height beside Gwen, who watched the interaction with obvious entertainment.

A breathy laugh escaped Peter B's throat as he nodded to his muse. "Oh, you know them." He grinned, "Very Cool."

"We're from another dimension." Felicity explained, handing over the briefcase to Gwen before crossing her arms over her chest.

With a chuckle, Gwen added on to the younger girl, "Another, another dimension." She stated before turning back to the two males, "My name is Gwen Stacy. I was bitten by a radioactive spider. And for the last two years, I've been the one and only Spider-Woman. I saved my dad. I... couldn't save my best friend, Peter Parker, so now I save everyone else." She swallowed thickly as she thought of the boy, "-And I don't do friends anymore, not that I need them whilst I have Felice. It's to avoid any distractions. And one day this weird thing happened. And I mean, like, really weird."

"We were blown into last week." Felicity pipped in quickly.

"Literally," stressed Gwen, "we landed in New York, but not our New York. My spider senses told us to head to visions academy. Wasn't sure why until we met you." Gwen's eyes narrowed on Miles, who now alongside Peter B had untangled himself from the web of string.

Unsure what else to say, Miles plastered on an awkward smile. "I like your haircut." He complimented with a grimace.

"You don't get to like my haircut." Gwen snapped back, her eyes narrowed with faint displeasure as she felt his eyes trail to the missing section of hair on the side of her head.

Miles hummed as he flushed in embarrassment, his eyes moving to glance at Felicity with a new expectancy, waiting for her outward monologue which was instead greeted with a boastful laugh. "Nice try, Bug-boy, not gonna happen."

"Let's go." Gwen ordered, aiming a thread of webs into the distance and swinging away from the forest, briefcase in hand. Only seconds after, Fecliity followed in pursuit, grappling hook tight in her grip.

With a deep exhale, Miles glanced around with a look of perplexity, "how many more spider people are there?" He asked, tugging down the front of his mask to once again cover his face.

"Save it for comic-con." Peter B dismissed, following after the two girls and swinging through the forest of trees.

"What's comic-con?"

━━━━━━━━━━

MEMORIES WERE A FUNNY THING, locking us all in a constant cycle of remembrance that never ceased to a pause. Always daring the questions of what could've been done differently? What should've been done differently? In truth, Kingpin wasn't sure and that's exactly what ate him alive.

He recalled the image of Vanessa—his beautiful Vanessa, who he only ever tried to protect. He recalled the tender love they had shared, the shared connection of passion and adoration. A hollow ache swallowed his heart whole, draining it of every gleam of love and submerging it under the weight of hostility. All he wanted—all he ever wanted—was to return to that short-lived fantasy of their small, beloved family. Yet the universe had other plans, and he would forever detest it for that very reason.

His thumb pressed down onto the pen in his hand, the resounding click! Flickering like the movement of actively taken photos. Living memories that would forever live in his mind. Had everybody moved on? Forgotten about his deceased lover and youthful son? If so, why was he trapped in the endless labyrinth of his own reminiscence.

His mind faded to Richard, to his look of pure mortification as he watched his father beat Spiderman to near death. The way Vanessa had quickly ushered Richard away, her heartbreak evident on her face as that would forever be the last time he saw the two. The last look of horror that would forever stain his mind in a bloody massacre.

His hand slowly opened to allow the fragments of the pen to fall to the ground, shattered in dozens of miniature pieces that now littered the floor. He glanced over the horizon of trees before him, his jaw tightly locked as he watched the approaching figure of Doc Ock appear before him.

She levitated from the ground as her tentacles clung to the ground, holding her up effortlessly. A smile dusted her face, satisfactory and pouring with waves of justice. She glanced briefly to the side, a long tentacle arm grabbing the neck of a nearby bodyguard as she came closer to kingpin, holding the bodyguard captive as he aimed two handguns at her.

"I killed Spiderman." Kingpin stated, a scowl making itself at home on his lips as he sneered, "why did I just see two more?" He questioned expectantly, his eyes narrowed at the woman before him.

Holding up four fingers, Doc Ock grinned as she corrected the man, "there's three, actually and they've brought the cat with them too." The man's scowl increased tenfold to which she quickly tried to calm him, "--No, this is good. This is very, very good. This means you get what you want. It means my collider works." She explained, "all we have to do is kill a couple of spiders, dispose of a stray, and the collider will bring your family back. As many families as you want."

An almost unnoticeable shift in his expression caught her eye, allowing a swell of excitement to brew as she knew the man's decision. Slowly, her tentacle released the bodyguard's throat, dropping him back down onto the floor below.

"Tomorrow, at my collider." He ordered, turning his back to the woman as he slowly approached the doors to return inside the building and off of the balcony.

"Our collider."

━━━━━━━━━━

author's note!

probably gonna change Felicity's hair to white/silver again in across the spiderverse 'cause I found some black cat designs that were itsv designed and they're some of the best designs I've seen and it's basically how I imagine her. Here the links incase y'all wanna see what I'm talking about:
https://pin.it/4BEh3qi
https://pin.it/20ZL7ZU