Description
"WAKING UP!"
Peter Parker had hardly been asleep an hour before his alarm clock loudly reminded him that he'd be late for his meeting with Jameson if he didn't get up, like, now. It took every little fiber of willpower to manage such a feat, groggily dragging himself out of the qweet embrace of his cozy bed. Upon finally getting back on his feet, he couldn’t help but feel like something was off. It wasn’t his Spidey-Sense, he just couldn't shake out of his head some weird dream that he had last night...
In it, he was back in highschool and everything seemed to be normal, until he opened he peered into his locker mirror and noticed his brown hair pulled into two long pigtails tied with big red bows. Peter then looked down to find red platform shoes that increased his height by a bit, but not enough. After that, all the details became fuzzy…
‘Man, this sleep deprivation is doing things with me,’ Peter monologued internally. ‘At least I got the photos Jameson asked for.’ Sometimes, he couldn't believe on his luck, or lack of it. First, he spent all day working on his thesis, then good ole Jameson wanted more pictures of Spider-Man, and to top it all off, Electro decided to make his New York reappearance last night.
All in all, things had gone as they usually did. Peter still got the photos for Jameson and he would most likely be cheated out of money in the process. Electrix was back in jail, but he needed to repair a web shooter after their fight at....wait...Electrix? Was that right? Peter ran his hand under his chin as he was prone to do in lamentation. Something seemed off. He pictured the woman with golden curls that flowed from the back of a rather goofy green-and-yellow-lightning mask that only hid the top half of her face. Last night, she wore a green leotard (with a yellow lightning pattern, like the mask) that narrowed into a thong at the bottom, finishing that crime against fashion with yellow spike-heeled thigh-high boots. Peter remembered all these details vividly, yet…something still felt off about them. What was he forgetting?
Looking back at his alarm clock, Peter jumped in surprise, snapping himself out of his daydreaming. Looked as if he had to skip breakfast again. Quickly, he put the first piece of clothing in front of him: a remarkably baggy red sweater. In ten seconds, he was downstairs.
‘Too late,’ he thought. looking down at his watch. ‘I guess that I’ll have to swing to work...maybe get a bagel on the way.’
As with every other morning, Mary Jane Parker was waiting for her husband at the kitchen table with her usual cup of coffee, just getting her day started as well, though much more leisurely than her husband. "Looking sharp as always, Tiger," she teased with her trademark smirk. "I take it you're in a hurry?" Naturally, the answer was a blunt and panicked yes, causing her to give an amused giggle. "Thought so. Well, don't let me slow you down."
Before Peter could give a proper thanks and his nearly ceremonial kiss goodbye, there was a strange, sudden...something. Once more, the man couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it felt as if the air was just a little bit different and he couldn't help but feel some type of...off-ness about everything. His spider senses weren't tingling, so it probably wasn't anything malevolent, but something was definitely up...oh, he didn't have time for this! He was late enough to work as it was! All he had time to do was run out and casually wave MJ goodbye.
"See you later, Tiger~" Michael Jane lightly chuckled as he watched his beloved run off in a hurry. It was just about time for him to start heading back to the movie set...but then there was another sudden...something and the redheaded boy was forced to recant his prior thought. Movie set? Pfft, he wished! No, his stupid mom was making him go through high school like a normal, non-talented teenage actor. Still, he found himself in a rather big hurry as well. He couldn’t be late for Stage Design first period!
Peter ran over to his usual alleyway where, but seconds later, Spider-Man emerged. After climbing onto the rooftop of an abandoned hotel, the webhead jumped off and shot off his webs before effortlessly swinging through the skyline of New York. “I will never stop loving this!” he mused to himself as construction workers and kids going off to school cheered him on.
Peter Parker kept swinging through the air, firing weblines from building to building with his wrists, when he suddenly his felt a chill down his spine, like some sort of sudden, concentrated cold front. His breath trembled just for a moment while his mind went back to Ma...Michael Jane, his number one fan? Spidey perched himself onto a nearby gargoyle as he tried to collect his thoughts. He remembered how Aunt May asked him to help the neighbor 's son with some classes at school. Then one day, Michael sneaked into his room and the kid discovered his secret identity. Luckily, instead of revealing it to the world via social media, he chose to keep it a secret. Peter could remember the time he’d shared with the promising young boy vividly, but something just didn’t sit right with him. For a moment, he pondered calling Mr. Stark or Doctor Strange to see if something major was wrong.
Unfortunately, his train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of gunfire and sirens nearby. It was obvious that something was happening at a nearby museum and, for better or for worse, it was up to the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man to investigate!
Quite unsurprisingly, there was a robbery in progress at the museum, which meant it was a Thursday. Though Spidey couldn't quite make out the cause of all the commotion, there was a loud sonic boom that burst from the inside, sending most of the police surrounding the building flying away while shattering the windows on all their cars, that gave him a pretty clear idea of the one responsible. Just to make sure, he stealthily webbed over to one of the museum's windows and, shock of all shocks, it was the Shocker.
"Now don't anybody be gettin' anymore smart ideas," the B-grade villain threatened to the staff as he pumped his sonic gauntlets yet again. "Ya know what ah'm here for. Gimme that there shiny diamond an' nobody else has ta get hurt, comprendo?"
Suddenly, a precise sling of web attached itself to the red carpet below Shocker. "How's the tire mascot gig working out, Shocker?" Spidey quipped as the supersonic criminal turn his head to face his nemesis. The villain didn’t have much time to retort before the webslinger swiftly pulled the carpet from under his feet, sending Shocker falling on his back and allowing the hostages to escape.
Naturally, that did little to sooth Shocker's nerves. Though, as soon as he fell over backwards onto the floor, there was yet another ripple that Spider-Man felt. Just what was going on today? And why was his scalp suddenly so itchy? Probably had something to do with the rapidly growing hair underneath, but it was best not to jump to conclusions. After all, he had to focus on the fight now that Shocker was back on his feet! Even if something still felt off…
By all accounts, everything looked normal. He was still fighting Heather Schultz in all her tight-fitting rubber suit glory. As if it wasn't bad enough that her suit left little to the imagination in the first place, she had to accentuate her breasts with that black whatever top over it. Then again, Spidey supposed it did make for a fine distraction. "I'mma gonna make you pay for that, web-brain!" the woman proclaimed before letting loose one of her signature sonic blasts.
Thanks to his trusty spider-sense, the webhead was able to just barely avoid the destructive shockwave with a well-timed jump. "Pay for what?” he teased as he started swinging around the exhibit. “I didn't know we were going on a date! Oh, I should’ve brought my black and white suit!”
Visibly annoyed, Shocker continued to furiously attempt to smash the wall crawler with her blasts, to no avail. "You know that’s not what I meant!" she shouted, rapidly losing sight of her target until he was no longer visible at all. Peter was upside down on the ceiling before slowly descended until he was practically breathing on the neck of the oblivious woman, ready to take her by surprise.
Heather only became more nervous, skittishly looking around trying to find some glimpse of the arachnid. "Show yourself!" she screamed out, unawares that her foe was directly behind her. Spidey continued to stealthily descend to the same height as the criminal’s very firm bubble butt.
In one quick movement, he wrapped his legs around her neck and flipped her over, making the woman hit the ground with her belly up. In the same breath, the webslinger quickly removed the villainess’s shock bracelets.
And yet, even with the removal of the shock bracelets, there is yet another strange distortion in the air. What was that?! Something weird was definitely going on, but Spidey just couldn't quite pin it down...still...why was he holding a pair of headphones now? And why were they bursting obnoxiously loud metal music?
"Alright, alright, I get it!" the tones of an adolescent girl cries out underneath Spider-Man.
Where was once the criminal mastermind The Shocker was now a teenage girl that looked to be no older than 17. She wore an admittedly short dress with the strange mix of yellow and black, along with a pair of fishnet gloves and stockings. Her long black hair looked generally unkempt, while her face obviously trying to be goth but was far too tan and freckled to be so. This girl was obviously no grand supervillain, simply Heather Schultz, a bit of a metalhead that happened to love blasting her music as loud as possible. Apparently, they didn't like that in a stupid museum for losers. "Could you get off of me, please!"
"I...oh....sure!" Peter awkwardly stood back up, leaving the angry and a little bit flustered girl. He looked around to see nothing but weird looks from all the other museumgoers. This sure didn’t looked like an assault. Why was he even there in the first place? Something seriously wasn’t adding up. "Uh..everything looks alright here, so I’ll just....you know...go. Stay in school, kid!" He pointed at the girl before running out the building as fast as he could. With much haste, the webslinger thwipped his way onto a nearby rooftop before taking out his phone.
It was becoming increasingly obvious that something very wrong was occurring, even if he couldn’t quite point to what it may be. Space-time hijinks, maybe? It was entirely possible the Avengers were having an interdimensional debacle without him. Again. Perhaps Tony could shine some light on what was happening. Desperate for answers, Peter scrolled through his contacts and tried video calling his kinda-mentor.
It took awhile for the man on the other side to respond, but to Peter’s surprise, Tony did eventually answer. To less of a surprise, he looked as if he just woke up after a long all-nighter and was less than happy to be woken up over a potential Spider-Man emergency. “Gah…morning, Underroos,” the billionaire playboy groaned as he rubbed his eyes. “Something wrong or did Pepper hire you as my new alarm clock? Either way, I could use five more minutes.”
“Sorry to bother you Mr. Stark, I just…there’s something weird going,” Peyer tried to explain. “I don’t know what and I can’t explain why, but…” The screen suddenly froze on a shot of Tony taking a small yawn. Crap, looked like his cell signal was breaking up. Acting quick in a panic, he started slinging around Manhattan in search of a working signal, finally perching atop some skyrise gargoyle. “Sorry about that, Mr. Stark, I was just…”
“Mr. Stark? Wait, is my dad behind me?!” On the screen was no longer an insomniac entrepreneur, but a panicked teenage girl with wavy brown hair and the face of what could only be described as a high school idol. Even in her half-awake and panicked state (and only being dressed in a hastily thrown oversized t-shirt), she exuded beauty and authority, reminding Peter a lot of Liz Allen back in his high school days. The girl eventually calmed down and referred back to her caller. “Jesus, Petey, don’t freak me out like that! Did you call me just to play a prank on me?”
“N-No, I…I think there’s something going on, Toni. I don’t know what, but it feels like everything’s shifting around me. I can’t put my finger on what, but my spider senses are blasting like mad.” Toni Stark honestly wasn’t the most helpful person in the world, but she was definitely one of the smartest. Despite only being 17, she was one of the greatest scientific minds in the world, even rivaling her father Howard. “Isn’t there some type of machine you can use to check dimensional fluctuations or…something? I’m sorry, I was a chem major.”
“Hey hey, slow down, will ya?” Toni Stark replied while grasping her aching head. “Look, it’s way too early to worry about dimensional disturbances. I had a big party last night, Rhonda brought some alcohol, and school’s in…what? An hour?” She paused for a moment to check her phone clock before immediately springing to attention. “Oh crap! Look, I really gotta go. If you really wanna know about strange dimension stuff, ask Strange. They’re all about that. See ya!” And with that, the call was immediately cut off.
"Toni, wait!” Peter’s protests were obviously in vain. Clutching his head with his own headache, he supposed the girl’s advice was the best if not the only course of action. “Guess I’ll just leave these photos with J before I contact Strange. Hopefully he’ll know what’s going on." Fortunately, the Daily Bugle was but a few thwips away and, in an uncharacteristic stroke of luck, he noticed Jameson's office window was completely open! Perhaps it was time for Spider-Man to pay his old friend a visit. "Might as well have some fun after this crazy morning, I guess."