Chapter Text
It had been three months since the whole multiverse shenanigans and life could not have been more hectic for Peter Three.
The second he got back home, he’d done research on multidimensional traveling, but the internet hadn’t been as helpful as he thought it was going to be. Peter even tried to find if there was a Doctor Strange in his own universe. The only Docter Strange he’d found, was a man that acted as a wizard on children’s birthday parties, which Peter found ironic.
So, when he found nothing to help him, he decided to build his own theory, between work and Spider-Manning. Now it’s three months later and Peter is pretty sure he’s figured it out.
To celebrate his own victory, he’d got to a local café.
“Sir, we’re closing up.”
Peter woke up with a start, scanning his surroundings. He was still at the café, only is was empty, apart from the waiter that stood in front of him.
“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to stay so long.” Peter apologized.
“It’s fine,” the waiter said as he turned around to fill a glass of water. “You seemed so peaceful, I’d figured I could let you sleep until closing time.”
He put the glass in front of Peter. “Drink up.” He said firmly.
Peter complied as he had a look at the man. He wasn’t very tall, but seemed to be carrying himself quite well. The white blouse he was wearing stood out nicely against his light brown complexion and Peter was able to spot a sleeve of tattoos on his left lower arm.
“Tell me. What do you do that would make a young man like yourself pass out after only three beers?”
Peter laughed to himself. “I’d tell you, but you wouldn’t believe me.”
The man turned to him. He had a small grin play along his lips. “Try me.” He said.
He meddled it over for a bit. He’d just think I’m making it up anyway. Peter thought. Just leave the Spider-Man thing out of it.
“I’m working on a device that will allow me to travel to alternate universes.”
The waiter stopped wiping down the bar and looked up at him with a frown on his face. “Oh.”
“Yeah…”
“Well,” He said while throwing the dishcloth in the sink. “Tell me more about it. I might be an ordinary café owner, but I’m quite invested in sci-fi films.”
Peter stood perplexed as the man looked at him with an honest smile. “It’s quite a long story. Can I walk you home?”
“You think I need you to walk me home?”
“No no no, I don’t!” Peter spluttered. “I just- It can be dangerous on the streets this late, and I don’t know-“
“Chill,” he said. “I was only joking. I’d love to hear your story. Just let me close up.”
“Oh, sure.” Peter stood up from his stool, collecting his jacket and walked towards the door as the waiter shut the kitchen down. He frowned to himself. Why am I talking so easily to this guy? If he had learned anything in the past years, it’s to not let anyone else know too much information. It was too dangerous.
“Alright, let’s go!”
Peter forced a smile as they exited the cafe and closed it up. “You’re working on a machine that would allow you to travel to different universes?”
Peter nodded. “Yep. I’m pretty sure I’ve finished it too.”
“How’d you come up with it?”
“Hmm, right. You promise not to call the insane asylum on me, when I tell you?” Peter asked with a grin.
“That depends. If your storytelling skills are as all-over-the-place as your hair, I might.”
“What’s wrong with my hair?!” Peter asked, fake-offended. “It’s all over the place! Did you even try to tame it this morning?”
He was right. Peter had pulled another all-nighter and when he was finished Spider-Manning, he’d immediately gone back to finishing his machine. Leaving no room in between that and going to the café in the first place, he hadn’t had the time to check his appearance.
“No, you’re right,” He said. “I’ve been busy lately.”
“I can see that. Now tell me your experience! I’m getting exited!” The man was practically skipping instead of walking along.
“Right, it was about three months ago when I was walking through New York and I noticed everything change. The buildings stayed mostly the same, but the stores inside had changed in a split second. Turns out, I was pulled into another universe.”
“Are you serious?”
“Dead serious,” Peter said. “I was there for a day when I met another version of myself. He told me he fucked something up with the multiverse, which caused me to be pulled into his.”
The man gaped at him. “Wow, that’s insane.”
Peter hummed in agreement. “That’s not all. There was another Peter from another universe pulled in as well. So, at that point there were three Peter’s in one universe.”
“Your name is Peter then, I assume?”
“Oh yeah. Peter Parker. Pleasure to meet you.”
“Michael Jameson. Pleasure.” Michael smiled and reached out his hand for Peter to shake.
“Jameson? Do you happen to be related to that news reporter?”
Michael laughed. “Yes actually. He’s my uncle.”
“I work for him. I take pictures for the Daily Bugle.”
“No way!” Michael said. “Please tell me he pays you fairly. I know he’s quite greedy.”
Peter smiled sheepishly. “Define fair pay.”
“Oh I’m so sorry. I’ll try to talk to him about it the next time I see him.”
“That’s alright. It’s just a side job anyways. My real job is at Oscorp,” Peter said. “But hey, we’re getting side tracked.”
“Yes, so three Peter Parkers in one universe.”
“Correct. We spend some time together there and we actually became really close in the time span of just a day. When we were send back to our own place, I immediately started working on my machine. I mean, I just got two brothers, I’m not giving up on them so quickly.”
“Brothers? Aren’t they alternate versions of yourself?”
Peter sighted. “Yes, but we’re different ages, look a little different, so it feels more like brothers then other me’s.”
“And now you have a way to get back to them, right?”
“Yes and no. I have the machine done. I just need a lot of power to get it to work. That’s not even the problem. I have a friend who can give me access to that, but the problem is, that I don’t know where I’m going to end up.”
“What do you mean?” Michael asked.
“There are an unbelievable amount of universes and the machine I have, allows you to travel, but you’d have no idea where you’d end up.”
Michael nodded. “So the machine needs a way to know to what universe it has to go to?”
“Something like that.”
“It would probably need something from that universe to get there, right?”
“Maybe. What are you onto?”
Michael stopped walking. “Okay, I’m just a sci-fi nerd yeah, so call me out if I’m spitting complete bullshit. But you were in the other universe, right?” Peter nodded. “Even if this is your universe, you probably got some traces of the other universe left in you body, just because you were there. Like, you breathed that air you drank that water and ate food from there. So there must be something of that universe in you, that you could find and use in the machine!”
Peter stood shocked as he tried to wrap his mind around Michael’s theory.
“It’s probably complete bullcrap, isn’t it?”
Peter’s eyes widened as he thought of what Max had said when he was in the other universe. The power feels different here. If the power feels different it might not be too far fetched to think the air is different as well. Even with all the extra electricity removed from Max’s body, he still had a good connection with power and he had told Peter that he could still feel traces of the other power in his system.
“I’m sorry-“
“You’re a genius!” Peter cut Michael off. “You are absolutely right! This could work!”
“You don’t have to say that to make me feel better.”
“Nononono, I’m serious!” Peter exclaimed. “There must be traces of that universe left in me and I think I don’t even have to separate it from my normal energy for it to work on my machine! As long as the machine can recognize the different universes and give you the option to choose which one to go too…”
“Please tell me I didn’t just become the cause of you not sleeping for another month.” Michael said.
“Nah, If I’m lucky it’ll be done in 72 hours.”
“Let’s make that a week. That way you’ll have time to sleep and I won’t find you passed out on my bar again.”
“You don’t like finding men passed out on your bar?” Peter teased.
“Generally not, but when it’s a handsome, multiverse traveling scientist, I don’t mind it as much.”
Shit. That was flirting. Peter hadn’t given anyone the chance to flirt with him in a long time and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it right now.
“Ehm, I’ll just go home.” Michael said, adverting his graze away from Peter. “My apartment is across the street.”
Peter snapped out of his thoughts and saw Michael nod towards the big building behind him. “Eh, yeah.” Peter said. “Thank you for listening. And your genius idea.”
Michael smiled weakly and walked past him. “Yeah, bye.” He quickly made his way towards the front door and shot Peter another small smile before shutting the door behind him.
Peter stayed for a minute, staring at the closed door.
Wonderful job, Parker. Just wonderful.
-
“And you are a hundred precent sure this is going to work, and not roast you to the core?” Max asked as him and Peter walked over to the gates of the power grid.
“There is no such thing as a hundred precent sure in science theory, Max. That’s why it’s called a theory,” Peter told him. “Besides, I’ve survived your electricity blasts before, so I’m pretty sure I won’t die.”
Max shook his head as he opened the gates and let Peter inside.
After the multiverse trip, Peter came back into his universe only to find out that Electro had been saved from his own demise with the help of Peter One’s invention that sucked all the power out of him. Spider-Man apparently vouched for Max and he was cleared of all his crimes, while Oscorp was sued. Max had gotten his job back and had even been promoted and finally got the recognition he deserved for designing the power grid.
Peter and Max stayed in contact and Peter could now say that he officially had one real friend. Harry was still in prison, along with doctor Connors who was still charged for trying to turn the city into lizards.
It was now a week since Peter’s conversation with Michael and in the meantime, Peter had rebuild the machine into a bracelet. Since there was quite a lot of tech that went into the thing, the bracelet was quite thick and covered most of his lower arm, but it wasn’t meant to be worn all the time anyway.
“How much do you need?” Max asked, referring to the amount of electricity that was needed to charge the bracelet.
“I think around the amount a car would need to start up,” Peter said. “So if you could charge it up double that, that would be nice. You know, to-“
“To make sure you can get back as well? Yeah, I get it.” Max said. He collected a couple of cables and fiddled with the computer, as Peter pulled up the menu on the bracelet.
The small screen showed two universes to choose from. The universes both had some long number when they got registered into the device, but Peter had renamed them into universe 1 and universe 3. Universe 3 being his own. The bracelet had shown a percentage of the amount of universe it had found in Peter’s blood. The first one had only 0,2% while the other one had the rest. This told Peter that the first one was Universe 1 and the second was his own.
“Connect these to the thing.” Max said as he handed Peter the other end of a cable.
Peter stuck it into the end of the bracelet and clicked it into place. “I’m turning on the electricity now. If it hurts, tell me and I’m shutting it off, alright.” Max said with a stern look at Peter.
“Yeah, of course.”
Max pressed a digital button and Peter’s super hearing immediately picked up on the high sound of the electricity flowing through the cable, into the bracelet. He didn’t feel anything besides the metal slowly heating up. Luckily, he wore his suit underneath his casual clothes, so the heat didn’t press directly on his skin. After a minute or two, Max stopped the flow and took the cable from the bracelet.
“Everything good?” He asked Peter.
“Yep, it just got a little warm and it’s vibrating a bit, but nothing more then that.” Peter said.
The screen showed a small text saying: 2,5 jumps. “I got two and a half jumps. So I should be able to get back just fine.”
Max seemed impressed and shut the system down. “Alright, I’ll see you soon then.” Peter said while he was about to press the button of universe 1.
“Whoa whoa, hold up. Don’t jump right here!” Max warned. “You’ll probably end up in the same place in that universe. How are you going to explain that you are right here in the power grid?”
“Oh right,” Peter said.
-
Max loaded up a battery for Peter to take with him as a backup. That, along with a couple parts, to make another bracelet, were put into a rucksack and slung over Peter’s shoulder. In the last moment he thought of putting a casual outfit in the bag as well, as he would be wearing the Spidy-suit during the jump. With the rucksack on his back, he swung though New York.
Arriving at the Empire State Building he climbed all the way to the top. Peter gave one last look at his own city before turning his attention to the screen on the bracelet. He tapped Universe 1 and it asked for confirmation to jump. He confirmed and a loading screen showed up. The bracelet began to vibrate more then it usually did and the second the loading screen disappeared, a shock of electricity shot through Peter’s body. His muscles cramped and he lost his grip and stickiness on the pole.
It took him seconds to realize he was falling down the Empire State Building.