chapter 278

Chapter 278:

“Why is my universe going to be destroyed!?” The older Peter Parker asked me, for what felt like the 40th time.

He seemed really fixated on that single issue.

[That was actually the 37th time… but close enough.]

“Dude, I can’t give you any other answer than ‘I don’t know’! I just got to your universe and found you dead—that’s literally all I know,” I complained, flopping backward onto the couch in his safe house. “Gross!” I immediately sprang back up—the couch reeked of mold. “When was the last time you had this place cleaned?” I asked, glancing around. The whole place was covered in cobwebs and dust.

“This is a safe house. No one else is supposed to know about it,” Peter replied with a long sigh. “I never expected to need it.”

“Gross, we should have just gone to a hotel…” I muttered, scrunching my nose. “Ew, now my hair smells like a musty old couch!”

“For an angel, you sure do complain a lot. The smell isn’t that bad.”

“We can agree to disagree. Can we please just get out of here already?” I pleaded.

“Sure, but first I need to grab my spare web shooters and Spider-Man suit,” he said, rummaging through a nearby closet.

SQUEAK!

I watched as a couple of frightened rats scurried out of the closet and down the hall.

I was one of the most powerful beings in my universe. I could literally destroy entire worlds at this point. A couple of ordinary rats shouldn’t have scared me… but some instincts are impossible to shake.

I shrieked and flew straight out the window we came in through! I heard Peter calling out to me but there was no way I was going back in there. “That whole building needs to be condemned,” I grumbled to myself.

…

“So, the Green Goblin, the Prowler, and Kingpin all attacked you at the same time?” I asked, keeping a slight distance from Peter. His spare costume smelled like it had been a rat's nest at one point—worse than that disgusting couch. He wasn’t even wearing his mask because it stank so bad he couldn’t breathe through it. “Wait, if the Green Goblin is some kind of monster in this universe, how is Norman Osborn still running Oscorp?”

Peter let out a sad sigh. “The Goblin isn’t Norman. It’s my former best friend, Harry… He was transformed into a monster after some freak lab accident at Oscorp. Now he works as a monster for hire when he’s not doing his father’s bidding.”

“Sorry to hear that. So, you ended up losing to those three, and that’s how you died?”

“It wasn’t just that,” Peter reminded me. “I’ve taken on multiple villains before and won, but this time I was also protecting the other Spider-Man. He was just a kid with no idea how to use his powers. I had to keep him safe while the villains kept trying to kill both of us. I don’t even know why he was down there in the subway,” Peter said before remembering something. “Now that I think about it, the kid’s clothes were covered in paint.”

“So you lost your life protecting a little vandal who was down there graffitiing,” I inferred, nodding my head. “And you trusted this vandal with a really important flash drive to shut down the strange super collider that Wilson Fisk created underneath the city? Which we don’t yet know the purpose of?” I summarized our current situation.

Peter groaned at my remark. “It all sounds really dumb when you put it like that…”

“Too bad, that’s exactly what happened. There isn’t really any other way to put it,” I said with a shrug. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t have protected the kid, but not to the point where it cost you your life. A hero is worthless to the world if he ends up getting himself killed trying to save someone else.” That was simply a cold hard fact.

“I really need to find that kid…” he muttered.

“Yeah, you do. Especially since you gave him the only key to shut the collider down. Who knows what will happen if you try to shut it down some other way. It could end up nuking half the east coast, or possibly worse,” I told him.

Peter paused at my words, his eyes widening as a realization struck him. “The super collider has the power to destroy the Universe! That must be the threat you were telling me about.”

I put my finger to my chin in thought. Maybe he was onto something? I wasn’t sure how a low-tier villain like Kingpin could build something that destroys universes, but then again, crazier things have happened before. We needed to learn more about what this collider actually did. Peter wasn’t able to get the full details before he was discovered and subsequently killed. All he knew was that Kingpin was up to no good beneath the city, and Spider-Man had to stop him.

Our first stop was the abandoned subway where Peter had been killed earlier. As we made our way down, we passed numerous graffiti murals—some of them looked like they had been put up quite recently.

“Hm? What’s this?” I spotted a discarded backpack lying on the ground in front of a half-completed mural. “You think this belongs to the spider-kid?” I asked Peter. I unzipped it and checked inside.

“I doubt it. Lots of homeless people come down here to sleep. I don’t think finding anything about the kid will be that easy—”

“His name’s Miles Morales,” I said, cutting Peter off. He sputtered at me, but I kept going. Inside the backpack was a private school uniform and a student ID. “Clearly, no one ever taught this kid to leave his ID at home when he’s out committing some vandalism. At least now we know where to find him. We should be able to track him down tomorrow since it’ll be Monday, and he should be in school,” I said, slipping the wallet and backpack into my inventory.

“Wow, I can’t believe we got that lucky. It’s never that easy when I have to do some investigating,” Peter remarked.

“Your luck stat is probably just really low,” I joked, though I knew it was likely true. Most Peter Parkers had terrible luck.

He scoffed at me playfully. “Nice try, but I don’t believe in luck or any of that religious mumbo jumbo. I’m a man of science—everything has an explanation,” he said confidently.

“Okay…” I trailed off. Did he forget he was talking to a Fallen Angel who had just brought him back from the dead?

We continued following the path until we reached the abandoned subway tunnels. The place looked like it had been the site of a warzone. All the scaffolding was destroyed, and burn and slash marks were everywhere.

“That’s where Kingpin killed me…” Peter swung over and landed near a large crater in the cement. He started investigating it with his spider-senses while I looked around. I didn’t sense any magical residue in the area. Kingpin’s collider was completely mundane, as I expected since this Universe didn’t seem to have any signs of magic so far. I sent a shadow clone out earlier to try and find the Kamar Taj or signs of any other heroes. My clone didn’t find either.

Something else drew my attention when I heard some rubble shift above me. I glanced up but didn’t see anything, though I sensed two nearby lifeforms–one much smaller than the other. The larger lifeform was familiar enough, it felt like an ordinary human. I spread my wings and flew up towards their hiding place.

“Who’s there?” I called out.

“Nani!? Tenshi-chan…?” a Japanese girl’s voice responded.

I was momentarily taken aback by what I found. It was a spider-themed mech robot with a little girl inside piloting it. “Who are you, little girl?”

The front of the mech opened with a hiss. “Whoa! I didn’t know Angels were real here too! And you speak Japanese?” The girl inside peeked her head out, replying excitedly. She seemed very trusting, hopping out of her spider-themed mech without any hesitation. I didn’t know who she was, but I doubted she worked for Kingpin or any of the other villains who had been here recently.

“Angels can naturally speak every human language. That’s a cool robot, by the way. What’s your name?” I asked her again.

She struck an actual anime pose and flashed me a peace sign before introducing herself. “I’m Peni Parker! I'm from New York in the year 3145. I have a psychic link with the spider that lives inside my father’s robot. We’re best friends!” she said, holding out her hand. A tiny spider rested in her palm and gave me a cute little wave with one of its front legs.

“The year 3145…?” I repeated, my eyes widening. Was Kingpin building a time machine beneath New York? Peter told me it was a super collider. Peter had been so absorbed in investigating the scene of his own murder that he hadn’t noticed our guest. When I called out to him, he swung over.

“Eww… You kind of smell, mister…” Peni switched to English for his sake, but held her nose shut as she spoke. “Do you come from some kind of garbage universe? Are you Hobo Spider-Man?” she asked, and I couldn’t help but snicker.

“No… My spare suit just hasn’t been washed in a few years,” Peter replied, before asking the little girl who she was.

I laughed when she struck an anime pose for the second time and reintroduced herself. The tiny spider in her hand gave another small wave as well.

I'm sure Serafall would immediately love this girl and her adorable pet spider…

[You’re fine with Spiders but scared of rats?]

“Peni Parker? From the year 3145?” Peter asked in disbelief. “Was Kingpin building a time machine? That’s so much worse than I thought. Darn it, I assumed his collider was some kind of doomsday weapon,” he said.

“A time machine is worse than a doomsday weapon?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Peter shrugged at me. “I deal with bad guys creating doomsday weapons once a month. I’ve never faced a villain who could manipulate time, though. How do you even fight against something like that? He could travel back in time and kill me before I’m born!”

I had to agree with him there. “Ugh, don’t even get me started on trying to figure that out. I had to deal with a crazy time-travel guy a little over a year ago. He thought I stole his harem and traveled back in time to kill me by teaming up with an evil alien overlord. It was a whole thing...”

“What…?” Peter asked, staring at me in disbelief.

“Sugoi!” Peni gazed up at me with stars in her eyes. “We have evil aliens in the future too, but I haven’t had to fight any of them yet. The Supreme Goddess’s army usually handles that kind of stuff.” She nodded to herself, but then suddenly froze, staring at my face intensely.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“What did you say your name was, Tenshi-chan?” she asked nervously.

“Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, didn’t I? I am Layla of the Fallen.”

“EEEEeeeeehhhh!” she exclaimed loudly, pointing at me with a shaky finger. “Supreme Goddess-sama!? W-What are you doing h-here!? I am not worthy to gaze upon your glorious visage. I apologize for not recognizing you immediately!”

{Faith Energy +1,000!}

I facepalmed—this was exactly the kind of time-travel nonsense I wanted to avoid.

[Supreme Goddess…sama? Hehe… Looks like you’ve got quite the title 1,100 years in the future.]

Peter looked between me and Peni in confusion. “I thought you said you were an Angel of Death. How are you a Supreme Goddess?” he asked me.

…

I couldn’t keep the blush of embarrassment off my face. As much as I disliked people openly worshiping me, I knew it was necessary to collect Faith Energy. That’s why I usually only proclaimed myself a Goddess in other universes. I could perform a few miracles, gather some Faith Energy, and then go home, never having to see those people again. I was perfectly content with that.

At least, my present self was.

Future me, on the other hand, was a completely different story. I had no idea what happened in the future, but according to Peni, I ruled over hundreds of Universes as the Supreme Goddess, along with my wives and children. One of those Universes was where Peni came from.

“You might have brought me back to life, but don’t take it personally if I don’t bow down and start worshiping you on the spot,” Peter told me bluntly.

“Blasphemy!” Peni glared at her sort of male counterpart. “You’ve been given the gift of a second life by the Supreme Goddess, and you won’t even thank her for it!?” she shook her fist at Peter. The tiny spider in her other hand also mirrored her action and shook one of its tiny legs at Peter as well.

Wow, she was turning out to be a really devout follower of my apparent future cult/religion…

I explained to Peni that I was from her past and that I wasn’t the Supreme Goddess yet. That didn’t seem to deter her in the slightest. If anything, it made her more excited because she got to be part of my ‘ascendance’…

“I did thank her for it…” Peter grumbled and then shook his head. “...We have more important things to worry about right now. How many other Spider-People from alternate universes have you met?” he asked Peni.

“I’ve met Spider-Ham and Spider-Noir.” Peni quickly described them. One was a literal cartoon pig, and the other came from a straight-up comic universe where color didn’t seem to exist. “Both of them are really nice and—argh!” Peni suddenly cried out in pain, her body glitching in place.

I could feel it—this universe was literally trying to scrub Peni from existence. That wasn’t a good sign. I hadn’t even known that could happen. I’d brought plenty of people back to my home from other universes, and they’d never seemed to have any problems.

[It must have something to do with being a Spider-Person.]

After about 30 seconds, Peni and her pet spider stopped glitching. She was shaking like a leaf; it was obviously a distressing experience. I placed my hand on her shoulder and healed her with my Sacred Gear: Purger of Darkness.

“Thank you so much, Supreme Goddess! I am not worthy!” she exclaimed.

I still wasn’t used to hearing her call me that. “S–Sure thing, Peni. Can you do us a favor? Peter and I are going to investigate the super collider up close. I’d like you to gather Spider-Ham and Spider-Noir and meet us at…” I trailed off, unable to think of a good place.

“Meet us at my house,” Peter cut in. “Here’s the address. Tell my aunt what’s going on, and she’ll take care of you all. Also, tell her and my wife that I’m sorry I didn’t immediately tell them I’m alive again.” He handed Peni a small slip of paper.

Peni grinned. “I can do that! We’ve all been staying in an abandoned loft, trying to stay off the radar. It’ll be nice to have a roof over our heads that doesn’t leak.” With that, she hopped back into her futuristic spider-mech and started web-swinging back up to the surface.

Peter and I continued deeper into the tunnels. I was eager to get a closer look at the super collider. Surprisingly, we didn’t encounter any security, even as we bypassed a couple of very thick security doors and made our way inside.

“Wow… It’s a lot bigger than I was expecting,” I said.

[That’s not what she said…]

The collider was enormous, the size of a football stadium, and it was emitting an immense amount of energy. It wasn’t magical energy, but a type of dimensional energy that was unfamiliar to me. It was powerful enough to erase a Super-Class being in the blink of an eye. If I were to destroy the collider myself, it could potentially go critical and erase the entire planet.

“Where is everyone? The last time I broke in, there were dozens of scientists working on this thing,” Peter commented as we made our way around the main control room.

Even with Ajuka’s scientific knowledge in my head, much of this technology was completely alien to me. His expertise lay in Magi-tech, and this was pure human science.

“All of those scientists unfortunately perished after an incident earlier. Scrubbing out all the blood was a real hassle,” a deep voice spoke as a man appeared around a nearby corner. I had sensed him, but had dismissed him as a threat despite his imposing size. He wore a black suit that must have cost thousands of dollars to be custom-designed for such a large person. His eyes shifted from the unmasked Spider-Man to me. “I don’t believe we’ve met, Miss. I am Wilson Fisk,” he introduced himself with a small bow and smile.

I returned his bow with a proper curtsy. Even if he was a villain, I had no reason to ignore my manners. “Hello, I am Layla of the Fallen. I came here to investigate a disturbance that has put this entire universe in danger.”

“What do you mean everyone is dead!?” Peter asked in shock. “What the hell happened, Fisk!?”

The Kingpin shrugged at Peter with indifference. “Progress happened,” he said, turning away from us to face the giant collider on the other side of the glass.

[I think he’s about to start monologuing…]

“Over a year ago, I lost the love of my life and my son in a tragic accident…” Fisk began.

[yep.]

“…A lesser man would have accepted his tragic lot in life and moved on, but I am not a lesser man.” Fisk turned back to us with a wry smile. “I spent billions of dollars developing this massive project for one purpose, to find another version of my deceased wife and child in the multiverse and bring them home, so we could be a family again.”

“I don’t really see a problem with that,” I said honestly. I only had a problem that he built his collider directly under New York. Had he built it somewhere more remote, like another planet such as Mars, then no one would be able to complain even if something went wrong.

“What!?” Peter turned to me quickly. “How can you say that!? He can’t just replace his family with other people! That’s unnatural!” he argued.

Fisk scoffed, “And is it natural that you are back from the dead after I crushed your ribcage and stopped your heart?”

Peter hung his head. “No… but I was brought back by a literal Goddess—an Angel of Death herself,” he said, gesturing to me.

Fisk nodded. “I am aware. I have hidden cameras deployed all throughout the old tunnels. I heard everything. That’s the only reason we are having this civil conversation,” he said while looking at me.

“Let me guess,” I said, “now that I’m here, you want me to bring your wife and son back to life?”

Fisk’s face lit up with a broad smile as he spread his large arms. “Indeed! If you do that, I will personally shut down this collider and decommission it. It will no longer pose a danger to the people of this city.” He seemed unaware of just how perilous the device he’d commissioned truly was.

Peter glared at Fisk, clearly frustrated by what felt like an attempt to hold the world hostage.

“…Fine, I accept,” I said. “But first, I want you to reverse the collider and send all the Spider-People from other universes back home.” Peni wasn’t going to be able to last much longer in this Universe.

Fisk nodded in agreement. “I was already planning on doing that. It was one of those visitors who caused me to lose most of my staff. He called himself The Spider, and his abilities were both brutal and terrifying. We only managed to detain him by sheer luck before he could kill everyone and destroy the place. The Prowler discovered that The Spider was sensitive to loud noises, so we blared alarms at eardrum-shattering volume for over an hour before he finally lost consciousness. We currently have him detained in a cell with walls three feet thick of solid steel.” Fisk then turned to Peter with a smirk. “You’re lucky we managed to stop that monster. He had your face. Imagine if he had escaped and made it into the city. Your precious reputation would have been forever tarnished by someone wearing your face and symbol while slaughtering the hapless fools in this city.”

“Don’t try to guilt-trip me, Fisk!” Peter snapped. “You’re the one who brought him here!”

“And I’m also the one who brought Layla here. Without me, you’d still be dead,” Fisk pointed out.

Peter sputtered indignantly. “You’re the one who killed me in the first place!”

“We can agree to disagree,” Fisk shrugged before continuing. “Now, if you want the collider shut down for good, we need the key you took earlier. It wasn’t on your corpse. What did you do with it?”

“That’s none of your business,” Peter replied. “I’ll bring you the key tomorrow.”

“Eh, make it two days from now,” Fisk said. “I have some preparations of my own to take care of. Tomorrow, I need to exhume the coffins of my wife and son, and make sure their bodies are in perfect condition for their resurrections. I'll see you then, Goddess Layla,” he spoke to me politely while ignoring the glare Peter was still sending him.

We took that as our cue to leave and exited the room. This time, we didn’t have to sneak out, a lone security guard in the hallway escorted us to the elevator.

“I can’t believe Fisk gets to win after everything he did,” Peter spat, seething with frustration. “It’s not right.”

"I'm not from this universe, so I'm not as invested as you are," I replied calmly, "but sometimes it’s better to end things nonviolently, especially when your enemy has such a dangerous weapon and isn’t afraid to use it. The collider is stable for now, but how long until it breaks down and spirals out of control? What will we do then?” I countered, and Peter begrudgingly nodded in agreement.

“Whatever… Tomorrow we’ll grab the flash drive from Miles at his school…” he muttered.

…

–The Kingpin–

Still in the main control room, Wilson Fisk smiled at his reflection in the glass. It wasn’t often that a plan of his came together so perfectly… better than perfect, actually. He never would have expected his collider to bring a genuine Goddess to his world, especially one with the power to resurrect the dead. Instead of substitutes, he was going to have his original wife and son back in just two days!

And he’d save some money by shutting down this ridiculously expensive collider. The damn thing’s electricity bill costs millions of dollars an hour!

“I’m afraid I can’t let you shut down this beautiful device so soon. Not when it’s primed to tear down everything my bitch of a sister built!” A beautiful woman with pitch-black hair and eyes appeared behind Fisk in the glass’s reflection.

He spun around to face the woman who had snuck inside without any of the cameras detecting her.

“Who are you?” he asked defensively, his gut telling him this woman was incredibly dangerous, but he never backed down from anyone.

“I am Shathra, the Goddess of Wasps, and I’m going to use your collider to destroy the Web of Life,” she declared coldly.

Fisk cracked his large knuckles. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but that’s not going to happen. I made a deal with another Goddess already, one far more impressive than whatever you claim to be.” He lashed out with a powerful punch aimed at her head. Fisk was far stronger than even the world’s greatest bodybuilders. A single punch from him would kill most men instantly. That’s why he was completely shocked when Shathra effortlessly blocked his punch with a single finger!

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice, foolish mortal,” she said menacingly. “After all, you’re already dead. My venom has already taken hold. Don’t you know to be careful around wasps?” she said with a small laugh.

Fisk didn’t understand until he glanced down at his arm. The entire limb was quickly turning a necrotic black, and he lost all feeling in it almost immediately. What was worse, the necrosis was rapidly spreading up to his shoulder! It soon passed that point as well and reached his chest. It became impossible to breathe as he felt his own lungs stop working. The last thing he saw before he succumbed was the woman’s smirking face. ‘It’s not fair,’ he thought to himself. ‘I was so close to seeing them again…’

He knew with all the terrible crimes he committed in life, he wasn’t going to be reunited with his family in death…

XXX