Chapter 1: Slice of Life
Chapter Text
It was a fairly warm and normal day over the towns just on the edge of New York City, almost peaceful and tranquil in a way, at least in this specific spot of the world. Inside of the many garages, someone slammed away at a drumkit with ease and excitement, Gwen Stacy focusing and concentrating on another session. Playing long with this, her fellow bandmate Mary-Jane Watson, laid down a nice groovy riff on her guitar. Not the slight bit of hiccup or error halted either player from carrying on and getting back into the beat.
Both girls managed to work together within a sweet and steady rhythm, while some of their friends stood by and watched with amusement: Gwen's boyfriend Peter Parker, and other best friend Kevin Kittlemen. With swift arms and flicking of wrists, Both Gwen and Mary-Jane eventually brought their respective instruments down into a well-deserved resolution. The bouncing echoes of drum skins and guitar strings filled the garage before fading down into near silence. Not even another second skipped by before Peter and Kevin offered up a moderate amount of applause.
"Very good, Gwen," Peter complimented.
"Thanks, Peter," Gwen smiled cutely.
"That was brilliant, MJ," Kevin gave a thumbs-up of approval.
"Cheers, Kevin," Mary-Jane nodded before turning to both Peter and Gwen. "You think Gloria or Mariko will like this song I wrote for them?"
"Oh please, knowing those two, they'll fall in love with anything you make," Peter replied.
"Just as they've both fallen in love with you," Gwen added with a teasing grin and a look in her eyes, causing Mary-Jane to blush a bit.
Just then, a few faint knocks could be heard behind the garage door from the outside, caught by the attention of all four. Noticing such sounds and wondering who it would be, Peter and Kevin went over to pull up the wide door with a big heave and puff of breath. Soon enough, as they opened up the door, they immediately saw who were the ones knocking, much to their faces beaming up with wide smiles of delight.
"Oh hey Miles, hey Anya," Peter instantly recognised.
"Hey Pete, whaddup?" Miles greeted back, offering a little handshake to Peter.
"We're doing good here," Kevin said between briefly hugging Anya. "Whaddup to you too?"
"We're doing good as well," Anya replied before she stepped in to see both Gwen and Mary. "How's it going with you too?"
"Not a whole lot," Gwen shrugged.
"How about your little band?" Miles questioned as he too entered into the garage.
"We're doing fine, so far anyway," Mary-Jane answered. "We're working on this song that I hope Gloria will like".
"If it ends with a proposal, I'm a hundred percent sure she will," Anya commented with a smirk, resulting in all of them bursting into shared light laughter.
Chapter Text
The next day had come, and Peter Parker, Harry Osborn, Miles Morales, Anya Corazon and Kevin Kittlemen were at the Stacy's residence, specifically in the garage again. There, they watched Gwen Stacy's drumming and singing, smiling and clapping for her talents, even willing to offer up some help and advice. However, all six heard a deep rumbling noise, and it wasn't coming from any of Gwen's drums, but rather from the outside, followed by muffled rapid footsteps and yells of panic. Making their way of the garage, the four noticed several people running along the street from the left end to the right.
"What's going on now?" Harry questioned.
Just then, Peter was met with a sharp pinging between his ears as everything seemed to grey out and slow down in his vision, a feeling all-too familiar to him, a tingling of sorts. "I don't know exactly, but my senses might", Peter stated as he looked around just to see whatever the danger might actually be.
"You think that might be it?" Anya pointed at something just up the road to the left.
There, emerging from the field view and much higher than any of the nearby houses and trees was a massive cloud of turquoise-green. It almost casted a rising shadow of its own over the town, sweeping fast enough to overtake anyone left and caught behind.
"What is that?" Miles exclaimed.
"Dunno", Gwen muttered. "But it doesn't look good".
Quickly and swiftly, Gwen went over to shield Kevin with herself, keeping him down and wrapping her arms around him while Peter did the same with Miles and Harry with Anya. Inevitably, the wave soon hit the six as well, passing right over and through them. Inadvertently, all six inhaled the rushing mist, coughing for a bit, yet they all seemed fine and unaffected immediately. Or at least five out of them were.
A crackling sound was heard, coming from Kevin himself, as various sharp spikes of ice pierced from his skin all over his body, on his face and arms, through his clothes and even his hair. Gwen could only step back in wide-eyed horror, watching helplessly at something like this. Even Peter and Harry glanced over to see what was going on, much to their shock as well.
"Gwen! Peter!" Kevin yelped. "What's happe-" His short words were cut even shorter if not entirely altogether as the ice coated over his kneeling body completely, forming a cocoon of thick spiky ice around him where he still be seen through.
Gwen stood firmly still, almost paralysed from seeing such a sight up close. Her mouth hung open and yet no words came out, not even a remote sound. Harry, Peter, Miles and Anya walked over next to Gwen to closely observe what had just happened to one of their many friends, similarly stunned and silent as well. Eventually, the strange mist had already carried on down the road if not the whole town and land. What it left behind were a few similar cocoons and chrysalises scattered here and there in the town.
Chapter Text
Whether it took a few seconds, a few minutes, or even a few hours, Peter, Gwen, Harry, Miles and Anya all stood ashen-faced, open-mouthed and frozen, at leats figuratively frozen. As for Kevin, he was literally frozen, kneeled down and trapped in a cocoon of pure ice with spikes all over, unmoving and staring up at the others. After managing to shake herself from her brief stunned state, Gwen ran over, grabbed a spike in each hand and attempted to move the icy chrysalis, clenching and grunting as she used as much strength and stamina she had in her. But even as she strained her arms and dragged her boot-clad feet along the pavement beneath her, Gwen still couldn't move the frozen Kevin, at least on her own.
"Gwen, what are you doing?" Miles questioned.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Gwen asked back. "We gotta get Kevin somewhere safe. More importantly, we gotta get him outta this thing somehow".
"She's right", Peter spoke up. "Who knows what Kevin's parents might think and react to this, or what if something similar would happen to them?"
"Or would've happened to them already", Harry added before asking Gwen. "Do you know where they live?"
"Just down the street on the left", Gwen pointed far enough up ahead. "It's the number sixty-one".
And so, while Harry hurried on down the road, Peter, Miles and Anya went to assist Gwen in trying to lift up or at least move the icy cocoon of Kevin. But even then and still, even with more hands grabbing the spikes, more clenching of teeth and more heaving, they only barely managed to move it and him by an inch or two. But even if they were able to move him just ever so slightly and so very slowly, there was still the matter of which direction to go exactly and where to even go at all.
"Oh man, it's like trying to move an actual iceberg here", Miles exclaimed.
"Where are we even gonna take him?" Anya wiped a bit of sweat off from her forehead. "Can we really take him all the way to his home by ourselves?"
"We can bring him back into my garage for the moment and time-being", Gwen recommended.
"Hey Pete, you think we could use our web-shooters to at least, I dunno, lift him up, carry him, pull him perhaps?" Miles suggested.
"Maybe, and that's assuming all our webbing together could withstand the weight of this thing", Peter replied. "Besides, we don't wanna get Kevin hurt".
"So that should settle it, we use all our webs togethers to pull Kevin back into Gwen's garage", Anya shrugged. "Like carrying a stone to Stonehenge".
After letting go of the chrysalis and looking around the town to see if no one else would potentially be looking, Peter, Gwen, Miles and Anya walked over to the still-open entrance of the garage and aimed their web-shooters at the frozen cocoon, spewing and thwipping as much strands of web as they could. Once enough had stuck to Kevin's cocoon, the four friends pulled the tethers, gripping tightly and breathing heavily. Then slowly yet surely, Kevin's chrysalis was eventually moving, at least bit more and sooner than beforehand, and so much time would pass before they were able to get him completely inside the garage. Peter then went to pull down the garage door so to hide the still-frozen Kevin from any and all sight.
"So, what next?" Miles asked.
"We'll just have to wait", Peter answered.