Chapter Text
Part II
“If she finds out you’re keeping this from her, what she really is, it could mean the end of this beautiful world you both created in your hearts.” - Madame Web in the not so distant future
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“Are you sure it was her?” Miguel had asked me, his hands engulfing my shoulders, anchoring me to him as those piercing brown eyes of his as we stood in the darkness of his lab. “You’re absolutely sure that’s who you saw?”
“I’m serious, Miguel.” My gaze didn’t falter as I met his gaze, as his hands snaked up from my shoulders, slowly up to my cheeks. “It was Madame Web who unlocked my powers. What does this mean? Has she been watching me? Us? This whole time? Why hasn’t she been helping you with all this anomaly stuff?”
“I don’t know, mi corazon, but promise me, if she ever contacts you again, you can tell me, okay?” Miguel pleaded with me softly as his thumbs brushed over the skin of my cheeks. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.” - sweetheart
I nodded gently, taking a breath to try and ease my worries. “I promise.”
Miguel’s face softened as he leaned forward, “Come ‘ere,” He wrapped his arms around me, embracing me close to his chest as I sucked in his radiating warmth. ”We'll figure this out together. I promise.”
Looking back on it now, I think that was when everything started to crumble. Starting out as a tiny crack barely noticeable. Until overtime, it wasn’t.
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“Come on, let’s go!”
It was the middle of the night. Men dressed in dark clothing worked quickly as one by one they each grabbed and stored sneakers in the back of a large van. It was the delivery service backlot of the Nike store in Upstate. A new style of sneakers had just been released the other day, and they were all the rage.
Everyone wanted one, and I suppose these guys took it way too literally.
“Just a couple more and then we’re out of here!”
They nearly stacked the back of the van to the brim with nothing but sneaker boxes. If someone didn’t stop them, they’d surely make a speedy getaway, especially since they knocked out the patrolling security guard. They couldn’t get away with this.
There was a ‘FWIP!’ in the air as a blob of web fluid shot out from above, sticking to the robber closest to the van’s face.
“Come little children, I’ll take thee away,”
The webbing turned to gold as the hue glowed bright. The man collapsed to his knees before falling over and dropping the shoe box he was holding. Snoring quickly followed.
“Johnny?” One of the other robbers whirled around to see his friend fall.
But before he could get to him, another sling of webbing caught on his face now, displaying the same glowing effect and he too was quick to fall to the ground into slumber.
“Into a land of enchantment!”
One by one, the robbers fell. All the while dressed in a refurbished black and pink spider suit, I descended down from the street lamp slowly, dangling from a web.
“Come little children, the times come to play.
Here in my garden of magic~”
All the robbers lay asleep as I touched down on the ground, making sure to land on my good foot and not my, just on the cusp of recovering, sprained ankle. I looked around to assess the damage. No one was injured and I called it a blessing when I discovered that the robbers had disabled the security system.
Nobody would have witnessed the robbery, but that almost meant that nobody would witness Spider-Muse subduing them either.
“Nice one, Lisa!” Lyla’s holographic form appeared beside me, applauding me as confetti blew up around her. “A new personal best!”
“Thanks, Lyla.” I smiled softly at the AI under my mask.
“You’ve been getting a lot better at channeling your voice with your webbing.” She complimented as she fluttered about, admiring my handiwork as I carefully sat up the robbers into a little circle.
It’s been two weeks since I helped save my dimension from total collapse by Harry Osborne. It’s been two weeks since I sprained my ankle, and more importantly, it’s been two weeks since Madame Web gave me her blessing, allowing me to use my powers in my dimension safely. Madame Web. . .
My mind was still reeling from that entire counter. Was she observing my dimension through her powers like she was with those other dimensions I saw? Was she watching me right now to make sure I upheld my promise?
With great power comes great responsibility, or as Miguel likes to say With great powers comes great guilt.
Now I’m craving fortune cookies.
During that time whenever I wasn’t home, I’d be at Spider-Society HQ in Miguel’s dimension, training and practicing more with my powers. Miguel supported me every step of the way, and did his best to not be a constant shadow, but he was always there when I really needed him most. He and the others helped me practice my web slinging and how to properly land with an injury, and Miguel made sure I kept up on my workout routine.
Since then, my enchantment ability has enhanced, allowing me to enchant my target without needing a connecting web from me to their skin. I could also do it without needing to touch my webbing, but only in short bursts and doesn’t last as long. So long as I’m close by and the webbing could detect the vibration of my voice, the enchantment would activate. Peter B. took plenty of notes for me in my notebook too.
Since then, I’ve secretly been using my powers to protect my new home, New York City. Tonight’s case was a shoe robbery. I wish I didn’t have to hide it, but perhaps it was for the best.
Miguel and I had talked about it briefly after the battle the following day. If he hadn’t intervened with Project: Reset, the government would have eventually hunted me down, interrogated me, and most likely would try to experiment and dissect me. It was brought up briefly, but we didn’t need to go into any further detail if they got their hands on my gizmo.
As much as I agreed I didn’t want it to end up going that route, I wished I could have preserved my friends memories. They knew of my secret superhero identity for all but mere hours before Miguel had to erase them and every single person on the planet in order to protect me, my dimension, and the Spider-Society.
Miguel’s logic made sense. He knew way more about all this stuff than I did. He was a little older, a little wiser. I trusted him, and I still do, and so far he has yet to try and take advantage of said trust.
“I guess there was one upside to my idol bootcamp.” I used my webbing to tie up the robbers, making sure they were nice and snug. “Learning how to sing and dance simultaneously does have its perks.”
“I think we can call this a successful patrol.” Lyla grinned, arms crossed as pixel shades appeared over her eyes.
“I agree.” I smiled, brushing off my hands. “Let’s head home.”
As I was turning away, there was a loud bang as the driver side door of the robber’s getaway van was kicked open. “What is all that racket out there?!”
I froze, the eyelets on my mask widening as I whirled to see one more robber stagger out of the vehicle. He held a gun in his hand as he spotted me, his eyes darting between me and his friends tied up. They stepped forward, aiming their weapon towards me.
“What the hell are you–?!”
I instantly flicked my wrist, shooting web fluid on his face. “Go to sleep please!”
The webbing glowed gold and instantly, the driver fell on his face, fast asleep.
My heart was pounding as I exchanged a glance with Lyla who gawked at the scene, eyes widened and hands covering her mouth. “That was close.”
“Lyla, please don’t tell Miguel.” I pleaded gently.
“It will be our secret.” Lyla winks, a heart emoji over her head.
The following morning, news reports came out of a failed robbery at the Nike store. The robbers were caught due to them supposedly falling asleep during the heist and woke up police surrounding them after receiving an anonymous call about a disturbance in the area. By then, my webbing had dissolved and any sign of Spider-Muse’s presence vanished.
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Miguel’s P.O.V.
When Miguel stepped through the portal and arrived at Lisa’s apartment with take out from Tony’s the following afternoon, he had expected to find her on the couch resting, as she should, doing whatever she wanted. Reading, watching a movie, playing video games, whatever she wanted to do to keep herself relaxed and occupied and not put weight on her ankle that she should be resting.
What he wasn’t expecting was for her to have a guest. Not any of her friends, not any of the other spiders. Someone he had mentioned in the past and now started to regret ever mentioning their similar interests.
“Hey, Miguel! Right on time, we were about to start another round!” Gabriel O’Hara grinned from his spot on the couch near Lisa, offering his older brother a playful grin.
Miguel glanced over at the screen. It seemed Lisa and Gabriel had been passing the time playing a game called. . . Fortnite? Ah yes, that battle royale game. Miguel recalled Gabriel being obsessed with their dimension’s version of the game when they were teenagers.
“Gabri, not that I’m not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?” Miguel’s eyes narrowed towards his brother before his tone turned playful as he leaned down towards Lisa, kissing her temple as he said to her, “I thought I told you I didn’t want to share.”
“Well I was getting antsy and I didn’t want to bother you during your meeting with Jess, so I gave Gabriel a call and asked if he wanted to hang out.” Lisa smiled sweetly, reassuring him with a gentle look in her eyes.
“Hey, Miguel, look! You got a skin in this game!” Gabriel pointed at Lisa’s TV screen as he recognized the familiar blue and red suit. “Watch me make you do the griddy.” He snickered.
Miguel marched over, setting the take out down on the kitchen counter before using his free hand to smack and grab Gabriel’s head. “I should make you wash out your mouth for putting my name and ‘griddy’ in the same sentence.”
Gabriel triggered the emote, and the digital Spider-Man 2099 avatar danced.
“No fear!” Gabriel proclaimed.
Miguel erupted, swearing in his native tongue as he and Gabriel wrestled. Lisa snickered, shaking her head at them. Careful not to lean on her sprained ankle, she got up from the couch and began to move around to the kitchen counter to unpack the takeout food. “Brotherly rough housing is fine, but I better not get a noise complaint from any of my neighbors.”
That seemed to get them to calm down as they settled, Miguel finishing off Gabriel with a nuggie to the head, messing up his hair.
“I just got this done yesterday!” Gabriel pouted.
“Well that’s what you get for not giving me notice that you were coming over.” Miguel sneered playfully as he walked over and got us all a plate. “You are so lucky Tony packed extra.”
“Food? Yes!” Gabriel’s eyes went wide with delight as he jumped up from the couch.
As everyone divided up the food, Miguel glanced over towards Lisa again, “How have you been feeling?”
“Good, great, actually, my ankle doesn’t even hurt anymore.” Her smile brightened, taking her plate of food back to the couch and emphasized her statement by starting to walk on it again, though keeping her steps light.
“But you’ve been–” Miguel started speaking out of concern, but even he knew that sometimes it had come off as nagging, especially now when Lisa interjected him.
“Yes, I’ve been keeping it elevated while I rest.” Lisa sighed with a playful roll of her eyes.
“Even during your patrol last night?” Miguel quickly added.
“Yes!” Lisa sighed, her voice beginning to groan out of irritation. “I mentioned it in the report.”
Miguel brought Lisa over to HQ yesterday so Spider-Doc could take a look at her ankle and check on the healing process. According to him it looked good as new, but after Miguel’s insisting “Are you sure?” or “Does it need more time to heal?” Much to Lisa’s dismay, they decided to play it safe, and prescribed that they let it rest another day or so.
In this one instance, Miguel really did outrank Spider-Doc.
“I don’t mean to come off as nagging.” Miguel apologized as he came around to sit beside her. “I just worry. It’s. . . instincts.”
“I know. Does this mean I can at the very least not wear my cast while in my own home? Safe?” Lisa asked, a hint of begging in her eyes.
“I’d say why not!” Gabriel chimed in as he slouched on the sofa chair opposite of them. “She is in pretty bright spirits today, Miggy, the best I’ve seen her scene the incident.”
Miguel glanced between the pair, and the second Lisa’s expression shifted to that of her infamous puppy dog pout, Miguel folded. He sighed, shaking his head with a defeated smile. “Alright, fine, you may. But remember to–”
“Keep the cast on for another two weeks while I’m outside of my home so my friends and family don’t suspect.” Lisa recited, lowering her voice to try and mimic Miguel’ with a teasing stoic expression.
Miguel narrowed his eyes towards her, mocking annoyance. “That’s not funny.” the corner of his lip curled up.
“I can do an actual funny one if you want me to?” Lisa grinned back at me.
“Not unless you don’t want another foot massage later.” Miguel playfully jabbed back at her, digging into his food.
Lisa huffed, a war brewing in her eyes. Miguel had started offering Lisa little massages here and there to help ease her nerves. He could understand that being cooped up in her home for days at a time, unable to move around or even dance was troubling for her. In that regard he felt awful, and wanted to do anything and everything he could to try and make it better.
“You have a feet fetish I don’t know about, big brother?” Gabriel snickered.
“Ay, not at the dinner table.” Miguel pointed his fork at him as Gabriel had a cheshire cat-like smile on his face.
All of our gizmo’s suddenly beeped before Lyla’s holographic form projected itself from Gabriel’s gizmo. “Sorry to interrupt family time. Gabriel, your presence is being requested.”
“Welp, duty calls then.” Gabriel sat up from his chair, pointing at his plate. “You mind if I take this with me?”
“Go on.” Miguel waved him off as his brother packed his leftovers in an empty container.
“Say hi to Margo and the others for me.” Lisa waved him off with a friendly smile.
“I will, and enjoy your massage.” Gabriel winked with a little too much flirty intent.
“GABE!” Miguel and Lisa both called him out, cheeks flushed.
“Whoops, look at the time, gotta go!” Gabriel scrambled as a portal opened and he jumped through it just as Miguel was getting ready to toss a pillow in his direction.
The portal closed behind Gabriel, leaving Miguel and Lisa to themselves in her apartment.
“Brothers. . .” Miguel grumbled with a roll of his eyes.
“You know you love him.” Lisa grinned softly.
“Yeah, yeah,” Miguel grinned back. “Tell me about your day. What did you get up to today, besides inviting junior chaos into your home?”
“Hardy har har,” Lisa mocked a hearty laughter before adjusting her posture on the couch. “I spent the morning catching up on my reading actually. I finished the last book in the series I was reading.”
“You mean the fantasy smut?” Miguel snickered with a playful look on his eye, offering her a side glance.
Lisa met him back with a glare.
Miguel erupted in laughter, setting his plate down in his lap before waving his hands apologetically. “¡Lo siento! I believe you’ve said the technical term you prefer is spice?” He spoke again, using air quotes on the last word. -I'm sorry
“Much better,” Lisa smiled with an approving look. “Also, yes, it’s that series.”
“I take it the couple you were rooting for got together in the end?” Miguel asked.
“Oh, they’ve been together since the third book, that’s when they got married. The last two were them figuring out their new lives as a married couple while also ruling a kingdom and the M.F.C., uh, sorry, the–” Lisa was rambling on about her book, and Miguel couldn’t help but notice how her eyes lit up when she talked about it.
It was so adorable.
“The Main Female Character, right?” Miguel spoke up.
Lisa’s eyes seemed to sparkle. “You remembered.”
“Of course, and it’s kind of hard not to. Considering how much you brought it up the last two weeks.” Miguel chuckled softly, shielding his side as Lisa tried to swat him playfully. “You were saying?”
“Anyways, she finds out she’s pregnant with their kid towards the end of the series!” Lisa gawked in surprise. “Talk about a cliffhanger. I need a few business days to recover before I start a new one.”
“Well let me know, and I’ll gladly take you out to get one.” Miguel smiled sweetly.
Miguel knew full well that Lisa could just go online and order her books there, but he’d take every opportunity he could to spend time with her. If that meant following her around a book store and helping her find something new to read, he’d do it gladly.
They both resumed their dinner, eating in silence for a while. Finally after clearing their plates, MIguel gently lifted Lisa's plate from her hands and got up to clean them off in the kitchen. “Have you. . . heard from her yet?”
Miguel knew that it was becoming a touchy subject. For the last few days since the invasion of her dimension, he’d ask her once, every day if she had heard from Madame Web. She hadn’t, and was becoming frustrated about it, and Miguel constantly asking. Lisa fought it, not wanting to snap, something he knew she picked up from him, but she knew Miguel went well and after taking a moment to calm herself down, she politely asked him to refrain from asking her about it on a daily basis.
Now he only referred to the subject once in a while, and after fearing that the name alone may have added to the frustration, he reframed from naming Madame Web directly. She had been dubbed ‘her’ for the last week and a half.
The tone in Lisa’s voice changed instantly, her voice quiet as she spoke, “No.”
Miguel hummed softly as he finished washing the dishes, cleaning his hands before returning to the couch. “It’s okay, remember?” Carefully taking a hold of Lisa’s legs, he lifted them up before scooting back into his seat and rested her legs along his lap. “It’s okay.” His voice was calm, soothing as his hands gently patted the bare skin of her good ankle before stroking up her leg.
Lisa closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she leaned back on a pillow propping her up at the side of the couch. “I know.” Opening her eyes, Lisa offered Miguel a tired smile. “Any chance I can still get that massage, please?”
“For you? Anything.” Miguel returned the gesture as his fingers began to massage her foot, delicately slipping off her sock before digging into her skin.
Lisa let out a relieved sigh before sinking into her pillow. Gabriel was right. This was the most relaxed, and high spirited he had seen Lisa since we stopped Harry’s invasion. But it only seemed to leave her more questions than answers.
If Madame Web wasn’t going to go to her, then Miguel decided that he was going to go to her.
