Riot at the Raft

"So what do you think we'll find here? Some kind of portal? A new teammate?" asked MJ as the four women surveyed the island prison complex, looking for something -- anything -- that might tip them off to their next objective.

"Whatever it is, we'll know when we see it," Gwen answered, looking through a pair of binoculars. Nothing seemed unusual about the place -- it looked identical to the raft of their world, minus a few small details here and there. "It seems like Madame Web gave us the ability to sense any sort of possible multiversal 'conduits', for lack of a better term."

"Any idea why I seem to be able to sense these things?" Felicia asked. "You guys are the ones with the crazy-ass tingling sixth sense, not me."

"You'd have to ask Madame Web about that. It could have something to do with you being so closely involved with us. Maybe you represent a cat totem and it's spider totem adjacent or something. Maybe both," Gwen answered. "Of course, those are just theories..."

"Huh. Whatever the case may be, I'm glad that I got to tag along. Just as long as I get to do some thieving while we're saving the multiverse..."

"Yeah, yeah... we know what we were getting into when we married you," MJ chimed in. "Maybe there's some cool tech in this version of the Raft for you?"

"Maybe, but it'd likely belong to the Raft. Remember, you only steal from the bad guys," Gwen reminded Felicia.

"Yeah, yeah... and it seems like it'd be a terrible idea to keep dangerous technology in the same place they keep dangerous criminals," Felicia mused.

Gwen placed a hand on her wife's shoulder. "Hey, I'm sure we'll have to skulk through a museum owned by the Kingpin or an AIM lab at some point," she said reassuringly.

Felicia placed her hand on Gwen's hand and smiled. "I do love it when you support my thieving dreams."

"Uhhhhh. guys? I think we may have our conduit," Cindy interrupted, pointing at metal tentacles rising from the water. Otto Octavius rose from the water, his metal arms tearing into the prison walls.

"Octavius." Cindy hissed. It might have been a different Dr. Octavius, but the sight made Silk's blood boil thinking about what she lost to the one in her universe.

Two years earlier

“So what’d you pick?”

“I really don’t know... I’ve only seen like two Earth movies. I’m kinda new here, y’know,” Kara pointed out as she scrolled through the movies on the TV..

“Oh, uh, right,” Cindy said, blushing slightly as she remembered it had only been a couple of months since she’d discovered Kara -- she’d felt like she’d known the Kryptonian all her life. “Sorry about that.”

“You don’t have to apologize. You are gonna have to pick out the movie, though.”

“Right... how about the Wizard of Oz? It’s about a girl who wakes up in a strange land after a tornado.”

Kara chuckled at the description. “Sounds familiar. Sure, let’s go with that.”

The pair dimmed the lights, sat on the couch and began to watch the movie. Not long after they started watching, Kara cuddled up to Cindy and rested her head on her roommate’s shoulder. Cindy felt her heart skip a beat, her mind nervously racing to try and find some hidden meaning in what Kara was doing. After deciding that maybe she shouldn’t read too much into it, she wrapped her arm around Kara, who responded by nuzzling in even closer and smiling widely.

Cindy grinned herself upon seeing the look on Kara’s face as she watched the movie – clearly Kara was enjoying herself, and enjoying Cindy’s company as well. She wrapped her arm around Kara a little tighter and continued to watch the movie, both women simply enjoying the moment.

MJ, Gwen, Felicia & Cindy charged after Otto, who had been tearing prison doors off their hinges and siccing prisoners on the four women. As the battled to contain the rioting inmates, they ended up getting help from a very unexpected source.

"Hey, MJ. Cat. Gwen. I know it's been a while, but when did you three start working together?" Peter wondered. "And who's the new Spider-Lady? For that matter, when did you gain powers, MJ? And where's Kori? I always thought you two were inseparable... Have I really been out of the loop for that long?"

"Pete?!" Gwen yelled in shock. She’d figured it was possible she’d cross over into a universe where her old friend was alive, but she’d never expected it, much less a universe where he was Spider-Man.

"Uh, yeah. Hey Gwennie," Peter greeted as he swung into a particularly large inmate. "I, uh, I've been meaning to text you, but Liz and I just moved into our new place recently, and we have a kid on the way..."

"I'm gonna stop you right there," MJ interrupted, lashing away a group of attackers with a symbiotic tendril. "We're not who you think we are. Well, we are, but..."

"Aahh, say no more," Peter nodded, deftly dodging blasts from Shocker's gauntlets. "Multidimensional counterparts. Got it. So, where's everybody from?"

"MJ, Felicia & I are from the same universe. This is Cindy, who's since joined our little universe hopping club," Gwen introduced.

"Pleasure to meet you, Cindy. I thought I’d met at least one version of all the Spider-People before. Guess I was wrong. You know the me in your world?”

Cindy slashed at a rioters’ face with her webbed claws. "Actually, yeah. I've worked with the Pete in my universe... he's the guy who introduced me to the whole multiverse concept."

“Cool beans. So are we pals? Enemies? What’s up with us in your world?”

“I guess we’re, uh, work friends?” Cindy told Spider-Man. “We don’t hang out when we’re not doing spider-things, but I think you, uh, he’s a good guy. He does make some of the lamest jokes I’ve ever heard, though.”

“Oh, he’s got nothing on me. My jokes are so bad, some of my enemies will never be able to laugh again,” Peter boasted as he and Cindy continued to web up rioters while chasing Otto down. “Wait, you can shoot webs from your *fingers*?!”

“Uhhhh, yeah... that doesn’t weird you out, does it?” Cindy asked.

“Lady, I once met a Spider-Dude that shot webs out of his *butt*. That was weird. Your finger webs though? Pretty cool,” Peter told Silk. “Do you have any idea how much money I spend each month on web fluid? And here you are, just blasting it out of your finger guns.”

“Uhhh, cool. Thanks, I think?”

“Any time, uh...”

“Silk.”

“OK, Silk. So, do any of you know why Otto’s here?”

As if on cue, the raft prisoners’ faces distorted, becoming twisted and monstrous.

“Nevermind... he must be here to bust out fishbowl...” Peter grumbled. “You ladies are familiar with Mysterio, right?”

“Yeah. Different universe, same smoke and mirrors. We know what to do,” MJ answered.

While Mysterio’s illusions did slow down the group, they eventually got the riot under control; unfortunately, that also meant letting Otto and Quentin escape. The four women and Spider-Man left the prison to the guards, and regrouped on a Bronx rooftop.

“So we failed to stop Doc Ock, he busted Mysterio out of jail and now we have no idea where either of them are. We’re off to a great start,” Peter quipped.

“Yup. Got ‘em right where we want ‘em,” Felicia added. “You have no idea where they could have gone, Spider? It’s your universe.”

“Well, the Poconos are beautiful this time of year... maybe they’re off for a weekend in the mountains?” Peter suggested.

Felicia rolled her eyes. “Forget I asked...”

“I know where they went,” Cindy said confidently.

“...Really? How?” MJ asked.

“I can’t explain. It might be intuition. Maybe it’s this multidimensional sixth sense. But they’re working in a lab beneath one of Wilson Fisk’s buildings – at least that’s what it was in my world. It might be something different here, but they’re there, I’m sure of it.”

“Well, it’s the best lead we’ve got, and every other hint we’ve had has been some weird mystical hunch so far,” Gwen mused. “You coming, Pete?”

“I kinda have to, don’t I? These guys are my villains. Power, responsibility, I’m sure you’ve heard the saying.”

The group made their way to the address, which in this universe was an abandoned office building once owned by Roxxon. Sure enough, though, the lab was there, and Octavius had a portal generator up and running. He’d busted Beck out of prison to demonstrate a multidimensional avatar device he’d created.

“That’s... surprisingly brilliant, Beck. Here I thought you were only interested in illusions.”

“You underestimate me, Otto... I’ve worked for the likes of Stark, Oscorp and AIM for a reason.”

“I suppose I have. So, with your avatar technology, I would--”

Otto was interrupted with a blast of webbing to the face as the group made their grand entrance.

“Sorry Ock – I’m sure you had some sort of elaborate evil speech planned out, and I’m sure it was really, really great, but I don’t have the time today. I’ve got a racquetball game with Iron Man at 4 o’clock,” Peter quipped.

“Damn! How’d you find us?” Beck wondered. “Whatever. This isn’t your turf...”

“That’s right. You’re not stopping me this time,” Octavius snarled, activating his sentry robots.

“Oh, Otto. If I had a dime for every time you said that... I’d have, like, twenty bucks. And that might not sound like much, but that’s 200 times...”

Otto’s tentacles flew towards the group, one after another. “Shut up! I don’t need a math lesson from the likes of you.”

“I’d probably have 50 bucks with all the times our Ock’s told me that,” Gwen noted as she skillfully evaded Otto’s ****.

“Yeah... but that makes me wonder. How much money would we have made if we got a dime for every time a bad guy spouted some tired old cliche at us?” MJ asked, tendrils slashing through Ock’s robots.

“That’s gotta be like... 200 dollars right there,” Gwen figured.

“Whatever. I make more than that taking a casual stroll through Wilson Fisk’s art gallery,” Felicia scoffed.

Meanwhile, Cindy was face to face with Mysterio, ready to take him down. Mysterio hit her with some sort of mist he shot from his wrist, and suddenly, Cindy was back in her old apartment, cuddled up to Kara.

“You really don’t regret going to that party? It sounded like it was going to be pretty epic,” Cindy told her.

“Yeah, I’m sure it was great. But I’m having a better time with you than I would there,” Kara smiled warmly. “It’s just a shame we’ll never hang out like this again.”

“Uh, what?” Cindy asked. She looked at Kara, who was suddenly enveloped by Octavius’ metal arms and dragged into a portal.

“She’s gone, Cindy,” a demonic voice echoed out. “Taken from you. It doesn’t matter how far you travel, how long you search. You’ll never find her again.”

“No...” Cindy cried.

“You know it’s true, Cindy. Kara is gone, impossible to find. You’ll never see her again. Give up.”

“Shut up... SHUT UP!” Cindy screamed, as she broke through the illusion, lunging at Mysterio and hitting him with a vicious uppercut, knocking him ****. Octavius noticed that his ally had been beaten and shot his free tentacle in Silk’s direction. She dodged the metal arm, but it struck the portal generator, causing a vortex to open; on the other side, the group saw a vision of another world... where a well-dressed bald man had Supergirl bound to a chair, seemingly tormenting her while holding a glowing green rock.

“Kara... Kara!” Cindy screamed, dashing into the portal.

“Silk? Shit! Guys, Silk just jumped through the portal!” Felicia yelled, alerting her wives to their teammate’s sudden disappearance “What do we do now?!”

“Go after her – I got this,” Peter told the group.

“You sure?” Gwen asked. “We can stay if you need us...”

“You’ve got your own things going on! Besides, this isn’t the first time I’ve stopped a multidimensional disaster. Trust me, I’ll be fine. Go!”

“Good luck, Pete... it was good seeing you again,” Gwen told Spider-Man as the group waved goodbye and jumped through the portal. The group landed in near Cindy, in an unfamiliar alley.

Felicia was the first to speak up. “Cindy? Is everything OK?”

Cindy looked at the group, a look of determination on her face. “Kara. We have to help Kara...”

“Kara? Your girlfriend? She’s here?” MJ asked.

“I... I don’t know if she’s my Kara,” Cindy admitted. “But she’s in trouble. I saw it. And I can sense it.”

“I sense something too,” said Gwen. “Let’s head to the rooftops and get our bearings, and go from there.”

The group headed to a rooftop, and found themselves looking at an unfamiliar skyline with unfamiliar names adorning the buildings. LexCorp. Wayne Industries. Queen Industries. Clearly, the major players in this town were very different from the ones they knew.

As the group looked around, Felicia peered through her mask’s built in binoculars at an older building in what looked to be a town square. “Metropolis City Hall...”

“Metropolis? That’s where we are?” MJ asked.

“I guess... I wish that this Madame Web would give us a bit more to go on,” Felicia griped. “All this vague sensing crap is getting frustrating.”

“Maybe I can help,” an unfamiliar voice called out. The group turned around, and though none of them recognized the man who the voice belonged to, Cindy immediately recognized the “S” logo and red cape...