Day 6: Spider-Men on Patrol

The character of Miles Morales only appears or will appear in chapters
that are completely Safe for Work with no sexual content.
Accordingly, the following chapter is Safe for Work.

There were days Peter envied Miles Morales.

There was a lot that went into being a Spider-Man. Peter knew that literally better than anyone, and he'd seen how others had handled it across the multiverse. He knew what had happened when Otto Octavius had taken his body and role -- becoming a better person but definitely not being a superior Spider-Man, as Peter knew all too well. He was still dealing with the fallout.

Peter had met other Peter Parkers, each with their own stories, their own ways of dealing with the power and the responsibility. He had a clone brother -- Ben Reilly -- who'd lived and died and for a while thought he was the original and Peter the clone. He had other clones, like Kaine, who... had issues.

There was a lot that went into a Spider-Man. And not everyone -- not even every Peter Parker -- was up to it. It's what scared him most about the prospect of Mary Jane swinging into action as Redback -- but he had to have faith in her of all people.

And in the middle of all of this, there was Miles Morales. A kid. A teenager, who had no business throwing himself between a terrible world and the innocent people who lived there.

Peter could relate.

Now, Miles was swinging ahead of him, curling his body in the air, sending out webline after webline as the pair webslung their way through Manhatten. And for all the trouble Miles had endured... for all the problems and all the heartache... he kept his head up. He kept going. He'd said something to Peter once. Well, near Peter. All right, Peter overheard him say it. Whatever. "A hero isn't the one who always wins. It's the one who always tries." That was what he said.

Peter didn't like to think about a future where he wasn't around -- dead, permanently, say. Or without his powers or otherwise sidelined. But he didn't feel so badly about it these days. Not with Silk around, and Ms. Marvel, and a lot of the next generation. But mostly because Miles was the future of Spider-Man, and he didn't just have responsibility. He had wisdom. It's just... no one knew it because he was a kid.

The problem was... sometimes Miles had to speak his mind, and it wasn't necessarily something Peter wanted to hear.

"So how exactly did you get involved in this, again?" Miles asked, doing a twist roll and slinging out his next line. Peter had to work to keep up. Which meant Peter had to work extra hard to push ahead. Hey, no one said competition was a bad thing, right? Well, except for all those people who did.

"I kept a magic lamp out of the hands of the bad guys and then there was a djinn, and she can do anything but it's got to be..."

"Yeah, I got that part. It has conditions. Ones I'd rather not think about, since that involves thinking about you in those conditions and seriously, no thank you." He hit a rooftop and sprang, slinging another line. "And now you've got a whole clubhouse."

"Inanna's not a clubhouse," Peter said, sweeping past and turning in air, throwing an arm back to sling his next line. One nice thing about two guys with Spider Sense that didn't jam up around them? They unconsciously knew how to have a quiet conversation while literally swinging through urban canyons on thread. "It's going to do important work. Honestly, it's a way better idea than I think we--"

Miles hit a brownstone wall -- blank wall for an alley, no windows. Third story. He reclined back, letting Peter hit next to him. "And it's you and several women. And Barbara Eden."

"How do you even know who Barbara Eden is?"

"My cable has TV Land, you know. And some afternoons, that's the only thing you wanna leave on while doing homework."

"Anyway, yeah."

"So... how many of these women have you... y'know. Been with? Because we have names for guys like that. They're usually not good names."

"Been with? Seriously? That's what you went with?"

"Hey, apparently I have to have the sex talk with my mentor and I'm the one on the 'when two people love each other very much' side instead of the blushing 'can we please not talk about sex' side. I might not have the best words for this."

"Wait. I'm your mentor?"

"No, you're stalling. How many of these women have you been with?"

Peter shrugged, blushing. "Well, all of them. I dated all of them -- most of them for quite a while, and you already know Silk and I--"

"Yeah, speaking of visuals I don't need in my head? Peter. How many of them have you been with... in the last three days? Because we have names for people like that."

Peter flushed more. Thank God for full face masks. "All of them."

Miles shook his head and rubbed his temple. "Well we are off to the races, aren't we? And Mary Jane's okay with this?"

"It was her idea."

"You know, your generation likes to call my generation degenerate. I'm just saying."

"Miles--"

"Hey. I don't mean to shame. I really don't. You guys are all grownups and you're all doing this with your eyes wide open. On the other hand, if this Inanna thing really is going to be as important as you say? Maybe the ex-billionaire head of Parker Industries shouldn't have a love nest in it, filled with some of the hottest women the world's ever seen 'granting wishes' with him . Because that will get out and then that's what Inanna is no matter what you intended."

Peter breathed out. "Yeah, that's crossed my mind. Ollie says we can wish that away if it happens."

"Oh good. The djinn's name is Ollie, and she's up for mind controlling literally everyone on Earth reachable by mass media to keep you from being embarrassed by TMZ. Seriously, did you not get a textbook or something when you first pulled on pajamas and beat up criminals? Because that's messed up."

"...yeah. I learned that lesson the hard way." Peter breathed in, slowly.

"Wait, you did? You learned 'don't mind control the planet into forgetting your secret' the hard way?" Miles's mask-lenses narrowed. "You're not really a supervillain, are you?"

"Miles--"

"Because you have to tell me if you're a supervillain. That's the rule. I saw it on the Wire. And after Octopus, I'm not taking chances with that again."

"Miles... these wishes only work if they're connected to... well... intimacy. So MJ and the others are... facilitating that. It made sense when she said it."

"So, you can't just... be with Ollie to make this wishes work? You have to have a rotating bench?"

Peter paused. "Well, no. I'm pretty sure I could just be with Ollie -- honestly, can we not use 'be with' any more? It just feels... weird."

"Oh, that's what's weird about this. Got it." Miles shook his head. "Okay. So MJ. And this Ollie. Who else?"

"Silk. I mean, you gotta--"

"Yeah, I get that one. God I hope no one else got bit by my spider. That whole thing creeps me out."

"Yeah. Good call." So her, MJ, Gwen--"

"Wait, what?"

"Hu-- no, Miles not--"

"Gwen. Gwen Stacy. My Gwen Stacy? Cute girl in black, white and fuschia?"

"Miles -- wait, fuschia? That's pink."

"Pink doesn't pop like that."

"Of course pink pops like that--"

"Not important. You dragged her into this? Okay, this stopped being cute. That's sick. You're way too old--"

"I'm not talking about Spider-Gwen, Miles! Or any other Gwen from another universe!"

Miles paused. "Clone?"

"No."

"Demon impersonating human?"

"No."

"Skrull? Because my first fight was with a Skrull disguised as you, and that was one of the worst days--"

"Miles... it's my Gwen Stacy. We... brought her back to life."

Miles paused. "With Ollie. Ollie did that. You wished it."

"Yeah."

"You can bring back the dead? Because I got a list!"

"We all have a list. That's why Inanna became so--"

"Who's on your list? Are you starting... what, with Gandhi? Doctor King? Lincoln? Don't bring back Lincoln. He couldn't live up to the legend and -- in fact, skip the founding fathers too."

"Right now, it's just... Flash, Mattie, and George Stacy."

"Flash... okay, yeah. I get that. Agent Anti-Venom. I was there. Good man. Right. I have no idea who 'Mattie' or 'George Stacy' are. More spiders?"

"Mattie is. Captain Stacy's... Gwen's father."

Miles didn't say anything. The silence got awkward.

"He... I was responsible for... well, I wasn't, it was Octavius but..."

"I mentioned that bad day? First fight I ever had? That Skrull?" Miles looked down along the street. "He smashed through the front of a Hypeware in Soho during the whole invasion thing. I was there with my best friend, another good friend named Brent, and Brent's sister. They'd asked me to show her around because she was new and awkward. They were actually trying to set me up. Heh. Ollie's short for Olivia, right? Brent's sister was an Olivia too."

"Okay?"

"Yeah. I actually beat the Skrull, even though I probably shouldn't. He had your moves and strength. I had on a hoodie Olivia zipped on me just before it went down and a body full of adrenalin and terror. But Brent? Brent died. And... you know. There was nothing I could have done. I didn't skip out on fighting or hold back. He probably died in the first hit. Olivia didn't 'cause I got spider-sensed and knocked her out of the way. But Brent was still dead. Fifteen years old. Olivia hugged me at the funeral, and said it was okay because hey, what could I do?" Miles turned to look at Peter. "So... what do I gotta do? Fill out a form? I'm a minor, so I can't really be involved, but..."

"...Miles... I..."

"Yeah." He chuckled. "Yeah, I know. And that's the thing. You're not bringing back Kennedy or Gandhi. You're bringing back that girl you loved who died. You're not bringing back Charles Xavier or Bill Foster. You're bringing back Agent Anti-Venom and that other spider you mentioned. Because you know them. They mean something to you, on a personal level." He shrugged. "****, man. It's... it's crazy to think of anyone coming back from it, because everybody goes there eventually. You have a key to that door. And to who knows what else? That's probably minor compared to what a Djinn can do. I mean, I saw Aladdin. She doesn't talk like Robin Williams, does she?"

"No, thankfully."

"Well, that's a relief. Resurrection... Peter... that's... that's one of those things that if everybody doesn't have it, maybe nobody should."

"Yeah, well. I do have it. As long as I live, Ollie's going to be around. If I don't have her doing something she gets 'itchy,' and apparently that's bad. MJ, Silk, and Gwen? yeah. There are names for what I am -- what we are. But one of those names is 'family.' They're my family. And I really, really need them right now. I need them to tell me what not to do with Ollie, because 'do nothing' isn't an option." He rubbed his eyes through the mask -- he had to pinch a bit to pull the eyecovers out of the way. He had practice with that. "We can make the world a better place. But we can't... mind control everyone or change history or do terrible things. We have to be right the first time. And you know? I didn't get a textbook when I first pulled on the pajamas."

"Really? I got like three."

"Yeah, I think those got published long after I started. I'm probably a cautionary tale in them."

"Sort of. Jameson wrote the intro to one of them."

"Oh, well, I'm sure that's fine." Peter chuckled. "Miles, I have no idea how to handle any of this."

"Well, that makes two of us. All I--"

They both tensed, the spider-sense kicking in. Mugging.

"I got this," Miles said. "Catch you soon." He jumped off the building.

Peter watched Miles swing off to help people. Yeah. Spider-Man's future was safe.

Peter Parker wasn't so sure about his own.