Miles and Gwen were currently in the process of buying the stuff the other Spider-People asked for. Seeing that they were in costume, they caught a lot of attention.
"Wow, so there's two of you now?" The cashier asked, looking at the two of them.
"Nah man, it's a temporary team-up," Miles said, pulling out money for the stuff.
The cashier put his hand up, "Come on, I can't make Spider-Man pay. You know, the old Spider-Man saved my shop from being robbed a few years back."
"Preciate that! And hey, I'll make sure to do the same if it happens again." Miles said, putting some money into the tip jar on the counter before turning to look at Gwen. "You good to go?
"Yeah."
Miles nodded before going back to the cashier and dapping him up. "I'll see ya later, hermano."
The cashier watched as the two stepped outside and swung away, then turned to look at his shaky hand. "I just dapped up, Spider-Man."
...
The two Spider-People landed on top of a tower, where they rested for a moment.
"Here," Miles passed Gwen a bottle of water which she accepted.
"Thanks," Gwen said, taking off her mask. She took a sip while looking out to the city. "I gotta say, you're pretty friendly with people"
Miles shrugged, cracking open a bottle of water for himself. He raised his mask open enough to show his mouth. "I'm not called the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man by being a grouch."
"I guess not." Miles noticed that Gwen was still feeling down. If he had to guess it had to do something with her past. Which meant that it had to do with Peter.
'Alright, time to play doctor.' Miles cleared his throat, before looking over at Gwen. "You want to talk about what has you down?"
"I'm doing just fine," Gwen said harshly.
Miles nodded, "Alright."
Gwen sighed, feeling bad that she lashed out at him. "Sorry, it's just something from my past."
"Does it have to do with...Peter?"
"How do you..." Gwen sighed before nodding. "Yeah, it's Peter," She said, shrugging her arms. "Well, the Peter from my universe."
Miles remained silent, letting Gwen talk whenever she was ready. "Peter and I, we were friends. But one night...he died. I couldn't save him." Miles could see Gwen's hands tighten in anger. "I just feel guilty when I'm at Aunt May's house. I know he wasn't my Peter, but it still eats me up knowing that he died, again."
"You know, I was there when Peter died. It was right after you and me had that little accident." Miles said, pointing at his palm. "I gotta say, you made it look nice."
Gwen's eyes narrowed. "You don't get to talk about it."
"Right, my bad." Miles chuckled, placing his hands together. "I was still trying to figure out what the hell was happening to me. All scared and shit, I went over to a spot my uncle and I used to hang out at. I hoped that he could help me figure out what was going on with me. What I hadn't expected was to find myself right in the middle of a battle between Spider-Man and Green Goblin."
"Man, I can't imagine going through all of that in one night," Gwen said, leaning back and looking up at the setting sun. "What happened afterward?"
"Another villain, the Prowler arrived and the two began to double-team Spider-Man. I could have helped, but I was scared." Miles sighed, placing his hands on his knees. "Perhaps, if I hadn't punked out, Peter would still be alive."
Gwen straightened herself, placing a hand on Miles' shoulder. "Miles, it wasn't your fault. You had barely gotten your powers. If anything, you might have been a distraction to Peter."
"Maybe you're right. The fact of the matter is, I let someone die in front of me. So hey, I guess the two of us ain't so different."
"Please, it's different. I already had around two years of experience. You hadn't even learned how to use your powers."
"Hey, this ain't a competition." Miles smiled, putting his hands up. "What I meant is that we both got people who we need to do right by. To honor their memory. Funny, for the two of us, it happens to be Peter."
"Yeah, what a coincidence." Gwen snorted, standing up. She looked at Miles with a short smile. "Thanks for the talk, Miles. Weirdly enough, I feel a bit better."
"Sorry that I can't help much. Don't got the qualifications to be a therapist." Miles replied also getting up. "But if you ever need a friend to talk to, you can hit me up." as he said that, Miles put his fist up for her.
"Come on, don't leave me hanging." Gwen rolled her eyes before she ultimately bumped Miles's fist. Miles smirked, putting his mask down all the way. "Now let's get going. I'm sure Peni is going to chew me out for taking so long and don't get me started on Peter."
The two looked at the bag of food that was sitting on the ground.
"Yeah, that's going to be cold by the time we get back," Gwen said, pointing at it.
Miles shrugged, "Knowing Peter, he'll still eat it with a smile."
...
After a while, the two returned to Aunt May's house, where they saw everyone relaxing in the living room.
"About time you two got back," Peter said with a frown.
"Sorry, we got caught up in traffic." Miles smiled, passing Peter the bag of food.
"This is all cold!" Peter cried out, still eating a fry from the bag. "You're lucky their fries are tasty even if they're cold!"
"Now Peter, don't be ungrateful." Aunt May said, hitting Peter's shoulder softly.
Miles turned to Peni who was sitting with her legs crossed beside the coffee table. He placed a rather large bag filled with candy in front of her, which had her eyes shine and a bit of drool formed at the edge of her mouth.
"I wanted to apologize for what happened in the morning," Miles said, rubbing the back of his head. Peni wiped the drool from her mouth before giving Miles a thumbs up, "Arigatou, Miles!"
"Anytime, Peni." Miles nodded in return.
"Alright, if I can grab your attention," Peter said, making everyone turn to look at him. "Thanks to Peni, we managed to make a new override key. This one will allow us to use the Super Collider to send each one of us back to our universe. Once we're all gone, it'll be up to Miles to destroy it so that Kingpin can't use it to destroy all of Brooklyn."
"You guys ain't got to worry about that. I'll make sure to destroy it." Miles said with a determined look.
Peter nodded before continuing. "Peni also calculated that we have less than a day before all our atoms disintegrate, essentially killing us. So we head over to Kingpin's tower tonight. Any objections?"
Hearing that, no one had any problems with Peter's plan.
"Good! I'll let you guys get ready." With that, everyone left to go do their final preparations.
As they were all getting ready, Miles heard a ringing from his backpack. Opening it up, he saw that his phone was ringing. Looking at the caller ID, Miles' eyes widened in surprise. He turned to look at the others, "I'm getting a phone call, I'll go outside for a bit."
Stepping out of the house, Miles answered the phone.
"Uncle Aaron? How you've been?"
[Miles, where are you right now?] Aaron's voice sounded serious, worrying Miles.
"Uh, at my dorm, getting ready to sleep. I got class early as hell in the morning."
[I see. Could you do me a solid and come by my place? I got something I need you to see.]
'Hell, I don't even know where Uncle Aaron lives.' Miles cursed his luck. Besides, even if he did, he couldn't go now. He was right about to head to Kingpin's tower. "Man, I'm sorry unc, but I'm not gonna be able to go. The academy got security packed all over the place and I won't be able to sneak out. Hey, how about we meet up on the weekend?"
[Yeah...that sounds good. I'll see you soon, Miles.] Aaron finished before hanging up.
Miles let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure what he would do if Aaron decided to go and see him right now. But for some reason, MIles' gut was telling him something was wrong. Unfortunately, he didn't know what it could be.
Whatever it was, he would have to push it to the side. Tonight was the night that Miles was going to help his friends get back home, and there wasn't anything that was going to stop him.