Chapter Text
Laura watched. It was all she could really do.
She stood and watched as the annoying shitbag and the alternative version of her father soared towards the sparkling portal. She could hear Alioth roaring behind her as the monster neared Cassandra Nova's camp. She sighed and closed her eyes, silently preparing herself for her inevitable fate.
Next to her, Gambit was making some speech that probably had something to do with the 'honour of serving alongside them' or some shit. She was honestly too tired to even bother trying to understand him. Not like he would have the chance to quiz her on it later.
As the gas monster neared them, Laura wondered what her life could have been like. What If the TVA hadn't sent her to this shithole and she had gotten the chance to not only grow up but actually experience what people called 'the best years of her life'? What if her future hadn't been stolen along with her past?
Well, wasn't that the million-dollar question?
Laura smiled as the two assholes made it through the portal just as Alioth covered the base, blocking out everything with its purple gaseous form. At least she got to see Logan one more time before she died.
But the multiverse had different plans for her.
Just as Alioth began to sink its 'teeth' into her, something strange happened.
The ground beneath Laura collapsed into itself.
She screamed as she fell but she didn't think anybody heard her. Not like they could do anything while they were being eaten alive. She instinctively tried to plunge her claws into the walls of the hole that she was falling down but there was nothing for her to latch onto. There was only darkness around her.
All she could do was fall and scream...
Fall and scream...
fall... scream...
fall...
...
...scream
...
...
..
fall...
...
New York, Earth-616 (The Sacred Timeline)
'Another day, another free hotdog,' Spider-Man cheerfully thought to himself as he swung over the busy streets of New York. The sun was out and it was mercilessly beating down on everything within its gaze. t was at times like these that Peter was grateful for how bad his suit was at insulating heat.
Of course, he was going to despise it once winter came but that was future Peter's problem.
Things had been admittedly rough since the... uh... multiverse almost collapsed because of him last year and everyone forgot about him but it was fine now. Everything was fine. Sure, he had to rebuild his life from near scratch, with only enough legal documents to prove that he existed, but everything was fine. Sure, he was a stranger to all of his friends but, well, Daredevil was cool. He even offered Peter a place to stay once, which Peter quickly declined. He was fine after all. Everything was fine.
He'd be starting his tenure at Empire State University at the end of Summer, so he was looking to that. Completing his GED had been quicker than he had expected it to be, but, well, Aunt May always said that he underestimated himself. He definitely needed a distraction that didn't involve explosions or him getting shot at. Wilson Fisk was still missing after the Battle at Rockefeller Center, but that didn't make the criminals on the street any less dangerous.
Speaking of headaches.
'Spider Sense is going like crazy' A much better name than 'Peter Tingle' in his opinion (Sorry Aunt May). He landed on the side of a building and scanned the area below him for any threats. Already, the hum of his sixth sense was fading but it was still there, pointing him to where he needed to go.
'There?'
Even though he didn't see anything amiss, Spider-Man allowed himself to fall from the building. The wind roared in his years as he rapidly accelerated towards the ground, before, with a flick of his wrist and the push of a button, he fired a web.
His moment completely switched as he swung in the direction his sense was pointing him in. Daredevil had been kind enough to give him some tips on how to effectively use his senses and now Peter couldn't imagine living without them. Especially since his Spider Sense was currently proving how useful it is even outside of immediate combat.
Spidey landed inside a seemingly empty alley. It had the usual dumpsters, empty crates and probably mutated rats. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Despite the seeming lack of danger, his Spider Sense continued to hum, almost like it was whispering to him that he should stay on guard.
So, careful of any ambushes, Peter tiptoed deeper into the alley.
"Hello, anybody in here?" he called, "I'm Spider-Man, so... I won't hurt you or anything, I just want to help. Unless you're a bad guy, in which case I'll probably hurt you at least a little."
No response. Peter kept walking.
He turned a corner that's when he paused. Sticking out from the other side of a dumpster, was a bundle of dark hair that was most likely attached to a head which was most likely attached to a body (hopefully). Peter quickly rushed towards the body.
She was unconscious. That was the first thing that Peter noticed. She was also lying flat on her face. Peter, crouched next to her and gently turned her over. She was dressed in faded jeans, a grey shirt with a design he didn't recognise, a black denim vest, black boots and, unless she had fallen on them, she had also been wearing pink sunglasses that looked like they were designed for a girl younger than herself. Said pink sunglasses, were now lying broken on the ground where her face had been. There were also quite a small few holes and burns in her clothes that looked pretty fresh. There was a lot of blood on her, and there were too many smells for it o be just hers. Peter wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
In fact, there, Peter couldn't find any visible injuries on her. Not even on the skin that was visible under the holes and burns in her clothes,
'Weird.'
Peter looked up from the girl in his arms just in time to see a rift in space and time seal itself, leaving behind only a filthy brick wall.
"What the fu-"
Spider Sense.
Spidey pulled his head back just in time to avoid two metallic blades which almost stabbed him through the bottom of his chin. A wild, feral scream shot through his ears and Peter instinctively dropped the girl and jumped back, dodging a kick from a foot that had a long metal blade at the end of it, which Peter was pretty certain wasn't there before.
The girl picked herself up faster than he could have possibly expected. She growled at him, with her back slouched forward and arms pulled back, with two sharp metallic blades sticking out from both fists. The blade sticking out of her boot was gone, but now that he was looking closely, Spidey could see that both of her boots had holes the perfect size for the knife that had almost gone through his brain.
Peter raised one of his hands and took a step back, trying to signal to the girl that he wasn't a threat. "Hey, now, it's okay. I'm not here to hurt you."
She just let out another ferocious growl which was honestly a little intimidating, before letting out a scream and lunging at him. Spider-Man dodged the under her attack and then avoided the slashes that followed through a mixture of careful leans and well-timed steps. She tried to stab him with a punch so Peter leaned to the side, but it left him open to a kick from a footclaw.
He narrowly avoided the attack. "Hey, relax, I'm not here to fight you."
But his words seemed to simply fall on deaf ears. Peter jumped onto a dumpster to try and put some distance between himself and the girl. "Listen, just calm down and we can talk about this."
She didn't reply. She just jumped onto the dumpster with him and resumed trying to stab him. Her attacks were wild and frantic, but not unskilled. Definitely not unskilled.
Spidey when she tried to plunge her hand knives through his chest, Peter rolled off the dumpster and she quickly followed. Peter kicked her away just before she could land on him and slice him up into a million tiny pieces. She hit the dumpster with a yell and Peter didn't wait for her to fall before he started firing webs. They pinned the girl to the dumpster and Peter made sure to restrain her arms and legs in such a way that she couldn't cut herself free.
She didn't even slow down. She just continued to growl, and scream and trash against his webbing, desperately trying to break free. Peter really hoped nobody would hear her because that was a conversation he did NOT have the energy to deal with.
"Okay, listen, miss, I need you to calm down." She continues screaming. "You just fell out of a portal, which might be hard to believe but you have those crazy knives coming out of your body so you can probably believe it." More growling and screaming. "Can we just talk, without all of the shouting and yelling, please?"
...
"I'm gonna take that as a no."
Peter sighed and turned away from the girl. A simple web to the mouth was enough to muffle the rest of her growls.
'Is she a zombie?' Peter wondered, 'I hope not. Zombies that still look alive are the last thing I need.'
Peter turned back to the girl who, he was happy to say, was no longer screaming. However, she was still glaring at him, so intensely in fact that it kinda made him uncomfortable. But, he was the superhero and couldn't just leave this girl alone, stuck to a dumpster, especially since he didn't trust her to NOT start stabbing people as soon as she was free.
"Okay lady, listen. I'm Spider-Man and, like I said earlier, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm going to remove you from that dumpster and swing both of us to the roof of this building. When we're there, I'll remove the webbing covering your mouth so we can talk like two rational adults, okay? But I'm keeping you tied up until I'm sure that you're not going to stab me. Understand?"
The girl just continued to glare at him.
"I'm going to take that as a yes."
Getting her to lose without releasing her was pretty awkward, especially since giving her the slightest bit of freedom to move would probably result in Peter getting at least one knife somewhere he doesn't want any knives. But, with some careful planning and quick webbing, Peter was able to remove her from the side of the dumpster without letting her free.
From there, all it took was a quick swing for him to reach the roof before he attached her to an air duct.
"Alright, first things first. Are you hurt? I couldn't tell when I was checking on you earlier."
She shook her head with what little movement she could muster.
"Okay, that's good. Accelerated healing?"
She nodded this time.
"Wow, that's cool. I guess that's why you don't bleed out whenever those claws of yours come out?"
She didn't respond this time. She just stared. Not as bad as the glare but still pretty intense.
"I'm going to remove the webs from your mouth," Peter explained. "Once I do, we're going to have a civil conversation and you will tell me who you are and where you came from. Can you do that?"
For a moment, she didn't do anything. Peter started to wonder if growling and screaming made up her entire vocabulary. Peter really hoped not. His sign language was pretty rusty and he didn't even know if she used the same kind wherever she came from. She had supposedly fallen out of a portal so Peter couldn't really assume. Luckily, she nodded.
Peter sighed in relief. "Alright. I'm going to remove the webbing from your mouth, it might sting a little so be ready. When I do, I want you to tell me who you are and where you came from. Got it?"
This time, the girl didn't respond for even longer. Spidey was wondering what could be causing her to hesitate for such a long time. Eventually, she nodded gain. Her stare didn't waver though.
Peter nodded back to her and took a cautious step forward. He didn't make a single move without carefully consulting his Spider Sense. It remained silent even as he reached for the webs covering her mouth. Careful not to hurt her, Peter ripped off the webs and jumped back in the time it took for a normal person to blink.
For a few seconds, he and the girl just watched each other, both seemingly waiting for something to happen. Peter noted that the red around her mouth, left behind by his webs, was already returning to its natural light colour. Accelerated healing definitely had its perks. Was it also why she seemed to have such perfect skin?
"My name is Laura," Laura introduced herself with a collected tone. "I don't know where I am or how I got here." She hesitated and her eyes shot down in what almost looked like embarrassment. It only lasted for a second before she looked back up at him again. "And..." she bit the inside of her cheek, "I'm... sorry for attacking you."
Peter had to suppress his instinct to laugh. Apologising was obviously not something that came easy to her and she looked so cute doing it. "Okay, apology accepted. Nice to meet you Luara, like I said, I'm Spider-Man. As for where you are, you're in New York. Manhattan to be more specific."
She smirked, "No wonder my nose wants to kill itself."
This time, Peter allowed himself to laugh. "Yeah, I know the feeling. So, based on your question, I'm gonna guess you didn't come here by choice?"
Laura shook her head. "No, I didn't. I'm not even sure how I got here. All I know is that I'm supposed to be dead."
'Well, that's dark.'
"When I found you in that alley, there was a portal next to you. It closed itself just before you woke up and tried to turn me into a spider kebab. My best guess is that that's how you got here."
Laura nodded. "That would explain why I'm not in the Void."
Peter tilted his head to the side. "The Void?" he asked curiously.
"The multiverse's garbage dump at the end of time," she explained nonchalantly with a twinge of annoyance. Not towards him at least.
Peter blinked in surprise. Well, that was definitely new, although he hated how normal such a concept felt to him.
"I'm going to guess it's not a place that you can just leave whenever you feel like it."
Laura shook her head. "Everything that the TVA sends there stays there until Alioth can destroy it."
"I don't even want to know what that last thing is."
Peter hummed as he thought through what he had just been told. Someone from another universe (the end of time?) was suddenly in his universe with no knowledge as to why, which was a scarily familiar situation to him Of course, that meant he knew what he had to do next.
Without saying a word, he walked up to Laura and ripped off the rest of his webs before she could ask what he was doing. When she landed on the gravel surface of the roof they were on, Peter finally noticed just how short she was. He was almost a whole head taller than her.
She honestly looked kinda adorable when she wasn't trying to kill him.
"What are you doing?" Laura asked sternly.
Peter shook his head. Now wasn't the time for loneliness-induced thoughts. He had work to do.
"There's only one man that I know that you can go to for help when holes in the multiverse are randomly opening and swallowing people up. Can you fly?"
Laura raised an eyebrow, "No?"
"Can you teleport? Run really fast?"
"No, and not as fast as you probably want me to."
Peter nodded as he crossed those things off the list, "Alright, get on my back. I'll swing us there."
"What?"
"I'll swing us there. It's the fastest way to the Sanctum."
Laura thought back to the way this guy had used his webs to pull both himself and her onto the roof they were currently on. Was he really going to do that all the way to wherever he wanted to take her?
"What? Scared I'm going to drop you?" Peter asked with a teasing grin, hidden only by his mask.
Red appeared on Laura's face. "No!" she defended herself, "Just... curious if that's really a practical mode of transportation."
"Lady, I've been web-swinging for six years, not counting the five I was dead."
"You died!?"
Peter ignored her question. "Point is, I've been doing this for a long time. You have nothing to worry about."
Laura sighed. She supposed she didn't have any other choice. If she wanted to get any answers, she was going to have to go with Spider-Man. Now that she thought about it, hadn't Johnny mentioned there being a Spider-Man in the Resistance before she appeared? He seemed pretty sensitive about it and she was never curious enough to pry.
Now she was curious.
Laura sighed. "Fine, you can swing us there, but I can hold onto you myself."
"Figured. Just no knives, they're terrible for my joints. Deal?"
Laura rolled her eyes but couldn't suppress a smile.
"Deal."