An Evil Hour [Spider-Man 2099 & Gwenpool]

[Rift]

Harlem, Just Before Midnight...

The cold night air carried rain with it as a dark figure moved silently along the rooftops.

Landing in a crouch on the ledge of a building Miguel O'Hara, the Spider Man of 2099 surveyed the darkened city streets, his enhanced vision giving him a perfect view despite the poor lighting.

The target should be somewhere in this area. Where exactly is harder to determine, but satellite imagery and footage from local businesses clearly show movement of someone in possession of 2099 technology, and not just the explosive variety being sold to those thugs Punisher and I dealt with a few months back,he thought.

"Lyla, scan the vicinity for anything out of the ordinary. Forcefield generators, stealth units, or anything plasma based. For that matter, check for any arc reactor signatures too," he ordered his holographic assistant.

"Scanning now Miguel, but why arc energy? Tony Stark has not allowed public access to his RT node technology in the present day," she replied.

"And he never will if history remains intact, but Stark-Fujikawa had plenty of weaponry based upon the stuff that goes into his suits. If we do detect it, it's a good indication that someone from 2099 has been spreading around things we don't need getting loose in this time period. Not to mention Stark will shocking lose his mind if he detects it beforehand and the last thing I need is to have to explain everything to Iron Man. I need to keep the Avengers out of this. Everyone else for that matter too. These Heroic Age sorts have a bad habit of sticking their noses into everything and thinking they can save the day, but somethings even they don't need to know. Not if we want to preserve the timeline as best we can," he explained.

Before she could even finish using her various sensors to get him an answer, a scream rang out breaking through the sound of wind and rain.

"Miguel, that sounded like a scream!" Lyla said.

"Yeah, I know what a scream sounds like."

"Of course you do Miggy, but don't you want to know why and who that was?"

Great. Now the shocking computer is trying to guilt me into getting involved, he thought.

"Unless they are being eaten by a Freaker or shot by some kind of futuristic energy weapon, it isn't my objective."

Lyla suddenly projected from his wrist unit, her usual Marilyn Monroe-esqu appearance pouting at him, hands on her hips.

"Miguel, I know you don't mean that. Sure, several people...well quite a few people ended up dead after working with Frank Castle, but that wasn't your fault. Besides, whoever is screaming might be important to the future!"

Sighing, he said "Lyla, I have enough on my plate without you trying to guilt trip me. Changes like this, even if it is for the right reasons, could be considered meddling. I'm not the Spider-Man of this era. This is a him kind of thing. Or where are we? Harlem? Any minute now that glowing fist character or the big bulletproof guy will show up to save the day. Or one of like fifty morons spinning webs. This is the Heroic Age. You can't spit without hitting someone in spandex. Besides, preserving our future? kinda important."

Suddenly, Lyla had shifted her appearance. Gone was the supermodel looking girl and in her place was the image of the original Spider-Man, albeit still cast in hues of gold and yellow.

"What's important is not standing by while allowing someone to suffer and die, while you do nothing. If you don't get that, then you don't know the first thing about being Spider-Man," she said in a perfect mimicry of Peter Parker's voice.

Beneath the mask Miguel's eyes narrowed. "First off, that was a different me who got that speech. Second, since when did you get an emotional blackmail package installed?"

"As always I'm just here to help you Miguel," she responded cheerfully.

Almost growling he said, "Fine. A quick look, but then back to the mission."
-----------------------

A Few Moments Later...

Spider-Man found himself looking down into a nearby alley, the entrance blocked off by a large vehicle. Several people in police uniforms were rounding up a small group of the local homeless population. Only they were using far more force than was necessary, their weapons were not standard issue, and the cuffs hummed with electric energy.

"Oh shock me," Miguel muttered. "Lyla, if you say I told you so I will disconnect you and reconstruct your matrix so fast even you couldn't process it in time. Just get me readings on that truck and make it quick."

Flipping off the wall he landed in a crouch between some of the "officers" and their captives.

"I don't suppose telling you to let them go and to cuff yourselves is going to get me anywhere?"

His accelerated vision allowed him to see someone near the mouth of the alley take aim and fire a plasma blast at him, giving him plenty of time to bend backwards and avoid taking the lethal hit. As it crashed into a nearby wall, melting a baseball sized hole into the brick, he sighed.

"Didn't think so."

[John Kilroy]

Gwen went on a patrol, in her Gwenpool costume. She still wasin't a fan of it but she didn't have much of a better one, at the very least if she was going to have a knock off Deadpool costume could it not have at least been a white and pink version of a standard Deadpool costume? That question quickly vanished as she heard a scream. She lept from rooftop until she could follow where the scream was. It looked like a bunch of officers were rounding up a bunch of homeless. But there was somthing off about them.  They were using far more force than neccesary somthing told her these officers were phonies their tech gave it away. 

"Oh boys!" she shouted to get the phony cops attention. "Last I heard impersonating a cop is a BIG no no." Once Gwen got a closer look at thier tools, she found herself raising an eyebrow. Thier tech didn't look like Stark Tech, or Skrull tech it almost looked like it was reverse engineered, somthing about the technology seemed familar though and being the geek she was, her wheels turned as she went through her vast array of comic book knowledge...then it hit her. "Future Tech...and if future tech goons are here, then I'm guessing Spider-Man 2099 is probably close by too. 

The goons all gave each other malicious grins before turning thier weapons and attention on to her, Gwenpool raised her Katana's in kind, "You wanna get nuts..." Heroic pose "...Let's get nuts." Gwenpool flipped a trash can lid and threw it like it was Captain America's shield decking one faux-cop in the face, knocking him out cold. Some started to fire what appeared to be some sort of highpowered electrical taser. Thinking fast Gwen sliced a fire hydrant with one of her Katana's causing water to spew towards some of the cops as they fired their tasers. the results were...shocking as the faux-cops found out as they became victims of thier own attack. Gwen couldin't help but snicker as they seemed to twitch and make noises in practically a cartoonish fashion complete with wide eyes and stuck out tongues. They fell to the ground unconscious but still alive. 

The last Faux-Co[ standing charged right at her. "Get shocked you little...!" He stopped dead in his tracks as he realized that Gwen now had a taser in her hand that she had picked up from one of the fallen Faux-Cops...and she was holding it right under his crotch. What happened next could only be described as something straight out of a Looney Toons skit. Gwen had her thumb on the trigger as the pseudo-cop frantically shook his head from side to side with a look on his face that expressed both sheer terror and utter pleading. Gwen imitated him which only caused him to shake his head even more side to side this time with face pratically pouring rain in sweat. Gwen however shook her head up and down rapidly with a grin on her face as wide as a cheshire cat.

"If I do it I get a whippen. I do it." she said making a sideways glance at the reader. Hey if she was going to break the 4th wall she might as well give an homage to the classics. The Faux-cop closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as Gwenpool turned on the taser and electrocuted the Faux-cop right in the gonads at full power. 


"Yaaah-hoo-hoo-hoo-hooey!!!" the faux-cop screamed  in a pitch perfect Goofy scream that echoed across Harlem as he literally jumped 10 feet in the air, hitting the bottom of a metal stairway.

CLANK!!...THUNK!!!

 the cop was out cold, miraculously he was still alive but Gwenpool didn't envy him for the pain he'd be in when he woke up.

"hehehe ain't I a stinker?" 

The Homeless people soon fled the scene and the only people left conscious around were Gwen and Miguel. "I know you're here Miguel O'Hara you can come out now! It's ok!" 

[Rift]

Watching as the white and pink clad woman dispatched the fake cops with relative ease, Miguel was almost impressed.

Like I said, there's always some costumed vigilante or another piling out the heroic clown car in this century. Now if only I can avoid the usual "new suit Spidey?" stuff that comes with interacting with them, he thought.

Before he could actually start to react or to gather the tech now littered around the alley, the woman called out to him and he stopped dead in his tracks. She hadn't referred to him as Spider-Man or Webhead or Wallcrawler as others so often did. Not even the admittedly lame S-Man that some of the morons at Alchemax had started using. No, she called him by name.

Jammit! Given that the only two people from this time that should know me are Parker and his wife, this chick must be from 2099 and if she's from the future than she's probably working with Alchemax of my time or whoever is behind this junk to begin with!

"And just who the shock are you supposed to be? Another one of Tyler's low rent corporate raiders? Some genetically or cybernetically enhanced ninja? Because fair warning the last sword wielding merc I encountered didn't fare nearly as well as he'd of hoped," Miguel said.

It was both a threat and the truth. The Stark-Fujikawa samurai he'd tangled with mere days after becoming Spider-Man had come to his end at his hands...literally. There hadn't been another way out of the situation, not with Gabe's girlfriend and countless other civilians were at risk. Not to mention the Public Eye forces surrounding them.

"I'm kind of in the middle of something so you either need to start talking or start swinging, because I'm on something of a schedule here."

[John Kilroy]

Gwen couldn't help but facepalm as Miguel gave his reaction and she began to pace up and down. “Duh Gwen you called him by his real name, what did you expect? Of course he was going to think you were from the year 2099 stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid…"


She sighed and took off the mask revealing her true face to him. “uh, hehe, um Look I'm not from your time. Heck I'm not even from this Earth. My name is Gwen Poole. Technically speaking, I'm Gwen Stacy, at least a Gwen Stacy from another universe.”

Gwen was slightly panicked. The only pictures she had of Gwen Stacy from 616 were of the pen and ink variety and no two drawings of the dead girl were exactly the same in pen and ink so proving that she looked exactly like said dead girl was all but impossible…besides looks could be faked...DNA and RNA however, could not so she decided to take a more…radical approach.

"Look I can prove it." 

She pricked herself with a pin she took from one of her pockets and blood oozed out of her first finger. Not enough to be anything aside from a temporary annoyance but enough for a certain advanced AI to crossmatch with.



“Lyla if you are willing to trust me for just two seconds, take a blood sample from me and crossmatch it with This Earth's Gwen Stacy’s cellular profile and then do a Quantum signature study. If I remember my quantum physics correctly my DNA should be a 100% perfect match with hers, but the quantum signature of my RNA is going to be different. If you are as advanced as I think you are you should be able to trace it to earth-1218 or at least a parallel of it. It may have a letter next to it…A B C…”

[Rift]

Lyla projected from Spider-Man's wrist unit, smiling as she tapped her finger on her temple as if to visualize her thinking. She was doing as Gwenpool had suggested, scanning the sample and running diagnostics and database scans. Shrinking even smaller she appeared as if she were standing in Miguel's hand as images appeared alongside her showing the results of her tests.

"She appears to be telling the truth Miguel. Her sample is nearly identical to those on record for the Gwendolyn Stacy of this Earth and timeline," she said. "Although there are some particles present in her DNA structure that indicate she comes from elsewhere. Similar, but not identical to trace amounts of tachyon energy."

O'Hara snorted. "Great, so then that begs the question who the shock is Gwen Stacy?"

Lyla hesitated for a moment before shrugging. "I don't know Miguel. A scan of 2099 archives comes back with zero hits. Whoever she is she must not be important enough to be listed."

That or all the information lost during the end of the Heroic Age means we have nothing on file. There's a reason we don't know what ended it or the identity of many of the heroes and villains of this era, he thought.

Suddenly Lyla chimed in again. "There is a pair of articles from the Daily Bugle, hailing from this age. Apparently Gwen Stacy is the daughter of a police captain slain in the line of duty. Not too long after she died, a victim of the Green Goblin during a battle with Spider-Man atop a bridge. Exact cause of death is not listed although medical examiner reports indicate that it was not the fall itself that killed her, but instead..."

"Whatever. Dead Twencen girl linked to Spider-Man. We all have folks we can't save. And this is some alternate dimension cartoon ninja version of her. I frakking hate time travel and dimension hopping."

Sighing as Lyla faded away back into the wrist unit, he turned to Gwen. "Great, you're from another reality, I'm from the future. Your help was appreciated, now if you would excuse me I need to collect whatever 2099 tech these bitheads have, find out who sent them, and check the van."

Moving over to one of the downed faux police officers he checked the belt and pockets retrieving the restraints and a laser gun. The man stirred ever so slightly as Miguel rifled through his pockets.

"Oh good. Rise and shine," he said before webbing him to the wall.

Stepping forward, making sure his talons were visible, he brought them just below the man's chin.

"One chance. I know you were given these weapons. I want to know who gave them to you, why you were gathering up those people, and where you were supposed to take them. And I better like the answers or you are going to get the closest shave of your life."

The man stammered, clearly scared and still concussed following Gwenpool's beatdown of him and his men.

"I-I don't know who he is! Honest! It's just a job! He found us fresh out of Rikers. We gather folks, take them to him, and we get paid! That's it! I-I think he's experimenting on them or something! You know how these costumed guys are! I mean your Spider_Man! Maybe it is secretly one of yours! You know Doc Ock or that sand guy or something!"

[John Kilroy]

Gwen quickly put on her mask as the cop began to wake up, It stunned her that Miguel didn’t know who Gwen Stacy was considering the mantel he wore. *Keep in mind Gwen, he’s almost a completely different Spiderman* She thought to herself. In any case she’d have to give him a crash course. As Miguel was threatening him however she noticed some things that fell out of his pocket upon closer inspection she noticed that it was a gold coin. On the front of the gold coin was a Portrait of Senator

Stanley M. Lieber. at the top was the Quote “Semper Pugna Ut” (“Forever Fight as One”) and on the bottom was the word “Excelsior” (“Higher”) and on the back of the coin was the shield Logo. 

She looked at the date and saw the year 2097 inscribed. There was no way that could be right. 2099 didn’t use gold, they used credits right? Still she couldn't help but confront the guy.

“You know a lot more than you let on.” Gwenpool said walking over to Miguel and the cop. “I think you dropped this.” Gwen said as she showed the Faux-Cop the gold coin. “2097 huh?”

The Faux-Cop bit the corner of his lip.

“Jammit Jammit Jammit.” He cursed under his breath.

Gwenpool smirked “Alright Look you got about two seconds before my friend Spider-Man here makes you wish you never were born. So spill it. Did Alchemex send you?”

The Faux-Cop cocked his head to the side. “Alchemex? what the shock are you talking about? Alchemex has been shut down for decades…well by 2099 anyway. No I’m a White Shadow Centurion. Top of my class at Avengers Academy Circa 2092. He cut himself down after pulling what seemed to be some sort of plasma knife from his wrist and brushed himself off.

“Look I’m not even a man.” The cop activated a button on his wrist and his skin seemed to peel off revealing a young Italian-American woman. About 5’7 in height and around 120 lbs. As her "Man suit" for lack of a better term was disassembled her body was draped in a white cloak and hood obscuring her features.

  

“Alright now is my turn to ask questions. First of all, what are you doing here Miguel? S.H.I.E.L.D didn't mention anything about you being on this assignment. Had I known you were here it would have made things a whole lot easier for me instead of having to pretend to be one of these…trafficker buffoons.” The Italian woman looked to Gwen. “Second of all Who is She?" she smirked as she looked back at Miguel “Did someone finally get a girlfriend? Nice all it took was you going back in time to get one.”

Gwenpool looked at the whole situation in confusion. What was going on? This woman somehow knew Miguel as Spider-Man despite not being affiliated with Alchemex in fact Alchemex had been defunct for decades by the time 2099 had occurred…despite the fact that  the whole plot WAS Alchemex , something about an Avengers Academy, and what was with the gold coins? Her eyes widened as two and two slowly came together.

"Uh, Miguel...I don't know how...but I think the timeline as you knew it is Shocked Ten ways to Tuesday. I don't think the 2099 you knew exists anymore

[Rift]

Miguel's mind was reeling.

Whoever this is knows who I am. S.H.I.E.L.D. as most Twencen people would think of it, doesn't actually exist, at least not in any form that would be recognizable by the present's standards. Even if they did, everything is controlled by the megacorps and there is no way I would be on friendly terms with them. The Public Eye is bad enough. Add to that they are acting like I owe them answers!

Angrily, the futuristic Spider-Man spun and struck the wall just to the side of the strange agent, his talons taking out chunks of brick.

I'm too late. All of it was for nothing. Stopping that evil shocking version of Parker, ending Deadpool's torment, letting Castle do what he does in the name of stopping futuristic weapons from getting into the hands of present day criminals, all of it was a shocking waste! he thought.

"Listen lady, I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not the Miguel you know! I don't work for S.H.I.E.L.D and I don't know who the shock you are or what you are doing here in this day and age, but we are not friends. As for her," he said, pointing at Gwenpool, "She's some alternate dimension copy of a nobody forgotten by history. Also, not my friend let alone a girlfriend."

"Miggy? Your heartrate is rising. I suggest calming down for a moment. Look at the bright side! Alchemax's hold on the future has been broken! That's a good thing!" Lyla chimed in.

His hands curled into fists so tight bones creaked. Gwenpool's less than tact explanation, was not wrong. Chances were good his future and all he knew had been wiped away, all while he was busy playing around in the past pretending to be some kind of superhero capable of saving both eras. It meant that while he was distracted helping morons from the present he'd lost everything and everyone, possibly forever. Time travel was not something to be taken lightly and changes to the past were dangerous. The slightest alteration, the tiniest bit of tech introduced before its time, a single life lost or the trajectory of it nudged had far reaching implications. He had a feeling he was only starting to experience the consequences.

"Lyla? Stop talking. My whole shocking world maybe lost, everything I've done has been for nothing! Gabe, mom, the folks on the lower levels of Nueva York? If they even still exist there is no telling how they've been changed or if they'd be even remotely recognizable as the people I know. So no, it is not a good thing especially with further alterations continuing as we speak. I've been trying to preserve the timeline, warts and all, trying to be responsible and not let what I want or would hope to see influence my actions and still I failed. Even trying to live up to that stupid mantra of the original I failed, not just myself, not just my family and friends, but everyone. Our world, our future? It isn't just another alternate place in the multiverse, it was the natural flow of time. It was meant to be even if it wasn't pretty and from the looks of things it may be lost forever. So no, it is not a good thing!"

Turning from the women, chest and shoulders rising rapidly, he tried to calm himself, to remind himself that he was a scientist and that he had to think clearly if he wanted to find a way to fix things. That meant he needed information.

His voice, gruffer than usual and showing signs of interference from his fangs, he turned back to the strange agent in the person suit.

"Okay, from the top. Who the shock are you, why the shock are you traipsing around the present, and what do you know about what's going on with all these shocking alterations?"

[John Kilroy]

The woman's face didn't show anger or pain, just concern. It was clear that Miguel had come from a different timeline. That sort of thing was for better or worse common for travelers. The future-present they entered back into wasn't quite the future-present. It's why memory den's were a thing, to help sync up people's minds with the current timeline and the experiences their flashes got to experience as if they had lived it themselves. The way Miguel was panicking...even anguishing...he came from a VERY different 2099.

"Hey it's ok. Let me take a scan and see where exactly you came from and I'll see where exactly things diverged ok? We'll get you through this."

She took out what appeared to be a device similar to those memory things from men in black except these things weren't designed to wipe memories and they didn't flash. "Try to hold still if you can. There we go. Alright let's see what we're dealing with here."

She read the data that moved across the holographic pad and as she continued to read her eyes grew wider and wider and her jaw dropped lower and lower. A mutant/human war that caused most of the united states if not the world to become an uninhabitable corporatocracy, the unnatural deaths and or disappearances of most of if not all earth's greatest heroes. The Outright end of the Heroic age with Miguel being the one to start a new one and then of course the big icing on the cake that made The young woman nearly lose her lunch. The murder of Mary Jane that caused Peter Parker THE OG BIG KAHUNA Spider-Man to go heel and bring the rise of Alchemex. There was no No Terran Alliance of Sovereign Nations, No Roman Empire, no Avengers, No Avengers Acadamy, No S.H.I.E.L.D. She couldn't imagine living in such a timeline and frankly, she didn't want to. To top it all off in terms of weirdness, Even with Miguel Stopping evil Peter nothing he did himself seemed to cause such a drastic shift in the timeline. She counted AT LEAST 3 different time pillar shifts, Major points in history that shaped history. Yet according to Temporal and Spacial Scans, no intervention from future parties caused them. They just existed on their own. The White Shadow Centerian did a Quantum Signature scan THREE times just to ensure she wasn't looking at a variant of Miguel. he wasn't. This WAS her Miguel...but how he came from such a dramatically different 2099 baffled her.

"Well...the good news is...you didn't do anything to change your timeline. So you can rest easy. Whatever happened WASIN'T your fault. Do you understand? Look at this data. The temporal incursions you caused are micro and completely separate from the time pillar shifts shown here ok? So whatever happened it wasn't on you...it wasn't on anybody...Honestly I don't see how the future you knew could have even come about to begin with. In order for your timeline to occur, some of the most important events in history...MY history just... couldn't have happened."

She took a deep breath. "OK from the top but this is going to be A DOOZY ok? in 2099 the 2099 I am from. The primary governing body is the Terran Alliance of Sovereign Nations or T.A.S.N for short. Now on Earth there are seven MAJOR superpowers on Earth. The United States of America, The Roman Empire, the Japanese Empire, The Russian Empire, The Kingdom of Israel, The Kingdom of New Asgard, and The Kingdom of Latveria. Most other sub-nations and states are under the umbrella of the Seven. Megacorporations are a thing, and they do have mercenaries for hire but they don't have the same level of power that they did in your timeline. Alchemex has long been defunct . It is alive and kicking harder than it ever was. The Big two are Marvel Industries and Stark-Fujikawa...they aren't like the Stark-Fujikawa from the timeline you know though. The whole humans vs Mutants farce has been squashed for decades. In fact call somone born with Superpowers a mutant or a Homo-Superior in 2099, you're likely to lose teeth. The...well I guess from your point of view what would be considered the First Heroic Age never ended, It's alive and kicking harder than it ever was. Are you following so far? I know this a lot to take in."

The white Shadow sighed. "I guess to start from the very very top I need to ask this. The Heroic Civil War, Hellzone Incident, the Devilgate Riots, The Secret Invasion. Do ANY of these historical moments exist in your timeline's history?"

[Rift]

Spider-Man was thankful for the mask because if either of the women could see his face, they'd realize he was seething. Despite his anger, he listened silently to what the agent was saying, his mind racing with each new bit of information.

Easy for her to say, that it isn't my fault. There is no real way to know that. Sure, time was being changed before I came back, but by undoing the changes I may have altered things even further. There's no real way to know for certain. It's arrogant to think that technology can advanced far enough, even by 2099, to be able to accurately get a read on specific changes and what counts as small, considering even minor variations in the natural flow of time can cause branching. And as far as arrogant scientists go, I probably take the cake on that one so it is experience talking here. This is no minor change, not a small hiccup in the timestream. If there is no Alchemax, then I never work there, Tyler Stone never has me focus on recreating Spider-Man's power for the corporate raider program, and I never become Spider-Man. If everything is as she says and this happened before it became defunct, I'd likely of been arrested. So either I should blink out of existence or I am an aberration and nature not to mention organizations like T.O.T.E.M and even certain cosmic beings abhor such temporal anomalies. It means I am a walking paradox at this point and endanger any timeline I am in on top of potentially drawing down some powerful forces on anyone nearby should they decide to correct the mistake they'll see me as, he thought.

As she explained about how the clash over mutants was long over and how there was an alliance between Earth and extraterrestrials, he had to stifle a laugh. It all sounded lovely, but he didn't have that level of faith in people.

Been to a couple different realities and times and sadly, people are always people. Humans constantly seek to alienate those that are different, so while I believe the whole mutant hate thing could be squashed, they'd transfer all that hatred on to those genetically engineered, superheroes in general, and that's to say nothing of the constant class warfare that has plagued us since civilization started. Governments are still going to be what they've always been so they are likely spying on allies and enemies alike. Eventually something will come out and it won't last. Interesting though that there was no talk of the end of the Heroic Age. That was always an era taught about when I was young and the fact that nobody really knew what happened shaped the world in many ways. he thought, just before she answered that.

"Hurray. Costumed maniacs never died out and aliens and people are holding hands, tentacles, whatever. Sounds very kumbaya," he muttered.

Glumly he thought,If this is the future now, then nothing matters. Nothing I have done, nobody I've lost, the person I have become because of everything I faced. None of it. What's the point of even finding whoever is trying to alter things in the here and now? Clearly it doesn't matter. My actions have no impact.

"I guess to start from the very very top I need to ask this. The Heroic Civil War, Hellzone Incident, the Devilgate Riots, The Secret Invasion. Do ANY of these historical moments exist in your timeline's history?"

"Unfortunately. Current day has us living through the immediate aftermath of the Civil War and Hellzone is a big part of the reasons I have been stuck here longer than expected. As for the other two I heard something on the news about some bitheads running around in Daredevil sleepwear causing problems in The Kitchen. Whatever this invasion is it either hasn't happened or is still a secret," he answered. "So I guess it is aptly named."

[John Kilroy]

The White Centurian Shadow burst out in laughter. "Oh shock....hahaha....I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't be laughing at the situation. But it's nice to know your Sarcasm hasin't changed  a single  bit. I wouldn't call it kumbaya...instead of superhuman-born humans being discriminated against. Now it's Synths dealing with these issues. 

Gwen cocked her head to the side. "I'm sorry Synths?"

"Long story short, LMDs started to become sentient all over the place. They ceased to become well...decoys. America, Rome and Japan have put laws in place to reconize thier personhood and protect thier rights but...well criminals don't follow laws do they?"

"It's a Detroit: Become human situation." Gwen said.

"YES...it's almost exacly like that. Granted the Anti-Synth attitudes are not as prevlent as Anti-Mutant attitudes were in the late 20th early 21st century, but it's still a problem. Crime is still very much a thing. People will always find reasons to try and cause trouble. Some things don't change."

Gwen's eyes widened. She was actually thinking along the lines Miguel was. 

"Wait...without Alchemex none of this Miguel's experiences happened so... doesn't that make him a paradox? 

"Yep...and even as a T.O.T.E.M agent, I don't have advanced enough tech to be able to narrow down his micro thread and send him back...*Sigh* I'm going to need The Other's help."

Gwen's eyes widened. "Wait The Other?!? as in Miss Arrow the Other?"

"The Great Webweaver of the Web of life and Destiny and the one responsible for giving Miguel his powes  and making him a Spider-Totem yes. You see. Miguel's reality...his...horrible horrible reality exists as a microthread somewhere in between the space of the Macrothread that is this universe. MHR-616. They are sort of alternate universes, but at the same time they aren't...it's hard to explain. think of it like a science textbook diagrams. You have like figure 1a and then figure 1b...c...d...ect ect. The problem there are as many micro threads in a single macrothread as there are observable particles in a single universe. It'd be like trying to pick out a single grain of sand in an entire planet made of nothing but sand."

Gwen's eyes widened. "Wait you said you were a T.O.T.E.M agent. you not going to...kill Miguel to try and preserve history are you? Because I'm sorry your future be darned. I'm not going to just let you murder him just to protect some future that as far as I'm concerned hasn't happened. "

"what? No, My job is to stop people from the future causing harm in the past. Protect lives IN the present whenever that present is.

She then looked to Miguel. "Look I REALLY want to help you get back to your 2099 but right now I have a bigger fish to fry. Someone from the future is causing choas in the here and now. We don't know who or why but SOMEONE is sending future tech to the past and giving them to criminals and If I don't stop them. A lot of innocent people in the HERE AND NOW are going to Die...do you understand?"

[Rift]

Miguel listened as the women spoke to one another, Gwen voicing concerns not unlike his own. Being a walking paradox was most definitely going to be a problem. Paradoxes either had to resolve themselves in some way or exist as an ever-present threat to the time-space continuum. All of it was heavily theoretical and he guessed it would take several thousand more years before even half of the intricacies of time travel and the effects it had on reality were even close to being understood with any certainty.

Still, there's some hope. Not only does this agent consider it a possibility that my timeline is intact out there somewhere, but she specifically mentioned me by name meaning she knows a Miguel O'Hara, which leads credence to the notion that time branched. There's no way to be sure, not yet, but with the alternative meaning everything I've done, who I have become, was all for nothing? That everything I know and care about is just gone? Well, I'll cling just a little bit tighter to that strand, he thought.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up lady. I don't know about the Miguel you think you know, but me? My powers were not granted by anyone. It was an unhappy accident born of betrayal, but it was science pure and simple. I've never heard of the Web of Life and Destiny and I don't believe in destiny or any of that superstitious junk any more than I do that backwards nonsense the Thorites spout. Nobody, especially someone with as ostentatious and grandiose moniker as The Webweevil gave me powers. I'm a geneticist and a truly self-made wallcrawler. That said, if this person, whoever she is, can help me find a way back? Then I'll be the first guy to play into her shocking delusions. I'll join up with the Webweevil cult and even wear the t-shirt."

Crossing his arms and shaking his head as she explained her position, he snorted. "Great job so far. Where were you and the rest of your nesting doll agents when I was having to tackle an alternate Alchemax CEO intent on remaking the future in his image? Or when I had to team-up with that shocking crazy murder-bot Flipside to fight a weird octopus lady and a sentient killer program? Or a few weeks ago when I let that maniac Castle do his thing to retrieve 2099 tech handed out to street toughs? For that matter where were you people when the original Spider-Man and I had to handle some crazy glitching goblin chick the very first time I ended up back here?"

Turning from her he shook his head. There would be time for twenty questions, second guessing, and curiosities later. Lives were on the line. If he couldn't save his timeline, maybe he could help save this one.

"You know what, never mind, forget I asked. Since you are here now, why don't you share what you have on whoever is responsible? I've been tracking this bithead for months, but I got my first real lead during everything that went down with Punisher. I can worry about time travel legistics and temporal anomalies after we put take this Freaker down. The longer he's out there, the more danger people are in regardless of their proper timeline," he said, glancing at Gwen. "Or dimension."

[John Kilroy]

The young woman couldn't help but cock her head to the side Gwen did the same thing. "Should you tell him about the Spiderverse or should I?"

"Honestly neither. I think if we told him now his head might explode and to be frank, we don't have time to give him a shocking seven-hour lecture on metaphysics and mysticism and the history of the Spider-Totems. To answer your question, Miguel...we think someone may have recreated the Carnage Symbiote...we think he's trying to gather potintal host so that he can spread himself and take over the past...well my past, your present. I manage to trace things back to this group of trafficers and I was hoping that they'd lead me to either carnage or whomever is responsible, but Ms Poole over here crashed the party and tazered me in my synthetic manhood.

"ooof yeah sorry about that I didn't think you...Wait you know who I am???"

The woman's mouth dropped. "Shock. I let that slip. Ok Ok I was playing dumb I know who you are, you're a well known avenger by 2099 but I'm NOT spoiling anything for you. 

Gwen was beaming. "I get to be a well known Avenger...I get to be known Avenger!!! Whoo hoo!!!" 

[Rift]

Listening as the two women talked, Spider-Man tried to take in as much information as he could.

Spider-Totems and a Spider-Verse? Did I hear that right? That sounds...stupid. Interesting, but stupid name. And how does she become an Avenger? I mean I don't know her but she isn't even from this dimension! Whatever. Doesn't matter. The important part is stopping who is behind this nonsense before anyone else gets hurt or more timelines get erased. Problem is, her intel doesn't match what I found while working with Castle. Is this another alteration or are more than one maniac working together on this? he thought.

"Hold up. Carnage? I read about that maniac back during the Hellzone gang war. Some kind of insane serial killer fused with an equally crazy alien," he said. "In 2099...my 2099 nobody even remembers him, though we did have something similar."

Remembering his own battles with Kron Stone and the Venom symbiote, he fought the urge to shudder.

Speaking of psychos merged with evil goo, I'd hoped to never run into anything like Venom again. More so that I never met someone as shocking sick as Kron!

"Doesn't matter. Thing is I've been hunting whoever was behind this for months and my investigation led me to a different suspect. Lyla, pull up what we found," he said.

"Right away Miguel," she replied, his wrist unit suddenly showing the results of a blood test showing a 100% match.

Adjusting the size so both women could see the image, he continued. "Blood sample came from a shard of glass when the Punisher and I took out a black-market weapons sale. The man behind the curtain took off, but not before Castle put a round in him. Bled pretty good too, enough to get a sample off of a shard of glass. I ran it expecting to find someone from the future, but the database hit was from current day prison records. I mean it didn't make sense why someone from here and now had futuristic Alchemax and Stark-Fujikawa weapons to sell to street punks, but I had planned to ask him when I find him."

After I beat the ever-living daylights out of him, he thought.

Suddenly the image shifted to show a prison photo of a middle-aged man with close cropped white hair.

"Meet Roderick Kingsley. Freaker calls himself Hobgoblin and apparently has been a thorn in the original Spider-Man's side for ages. So either your intel is wrong, mine is wrong, or somehow these two things are connected. Considering Kingsley ran a criminal empire under the nose of law enforcement and the Kingpin, I figured weapons dealing was right up his alley. But he can't have survived to be in 2099 and while I don't know much beyond what the public does about Carnage, he doesn't seem to be much of a planner so much as a monster of opportunity," he explained.

Sighing he crossed his arms, the hologram fading. The mystery deepened. Was some futuristic version of one of Spider-Man's greatest foes working with a modern day villain of his?

If I had half a brain I'd let Parker know what's going on and let him deal with this mess. Shocking goo aliens and goblins are his schtick after all, he thought.

[John Kilroy]

"I've heard about him. the guy had the hardest time breaking away from the image of being a goblin Copycat of Norman Osborn despite the fact that it was technically the other way around. Still though, even if he is the one dealing the weapons, someone from the future has to be giving them to him."

"But Carnage with or without a Kletus was...a bit coo-coo for cocoa puffs. Gwen said. "I don't see how he'd have a plan..."

"Maybe he was smarter and more methodical than history gave him credit for. Shock, I wish we had Mr. Parker here. We could use his help right now."

Gwen's eyes widened as she began to grin. "We may not have Spider-Man but, we  may have the next best thing." she pulled out a smart watch and made a call an image of a man popped up, and he looked a lot like Spider except that his suit colors were reversed.

 

"Hey Gwen. what's up?"

"Aye I need you to meet you at the Daily Grind ASAP. We may have a problem on our hands. I'll buy. No argueing ok?"

"Wow guess it really is a problem. Who's the knock off Spider-Man behind you?"

[Rift]

Spider-Man looked from one of the women to the next, shaking his head.

Cocoa-Puffs? What the shock are...forget it. And I thought things had dumb names in 2099. Just who is this chick? An interdimensional transplant who just so happens be scheduled to become an Avenger has yet another wallcrawler on call? A wallcrawler who has an outfit that looks like someone ran Parker through a social media app photo filter. And I still have to clean up a mess likely made by not one, but two of the original's enemies, before I can even try to piece together whether or not my future still exists. This night is going to give me an aneurysm and it isn't even half over yet, he thought.

"Was there a shocking Twencen spider-human hybrid breeding program that time forgot?" he asked, turning to the Centurion. "Don't answer that, I don't really want to know."

Pressing something on his wrist unit, he turned his back on the women as Lyla shared something with him silently. Sighing, he turned back to them and asked, "Look, I don't care if Hobgoblin is actually some immortal con man or if Carnage has been hiding that he's secretly the evil pasta form of Napoleon, either way we have to stop them or whoever is doing this and ironically time isn't on our side. Meaning I don't have time to argue, especially since I get the feeling you are both going to stay on this regardless of what I tell you. So fine, we skip the usual melodrama when costumed lunatics meet each other and get down to business."

Please don't make a deal out of this by calling it a team, he thought.

"HE IS NOT A KNOCK OFF!" Lyla said, with more force than Miguel ever expected to hear from the overly cheerful assistant.

"Whoa, down girl. I've been called worse, but I could ask the same. Who is this clown?"