A few minutes later.
William Baker lay on the ground, staring up at the glowing streetlight with a blank, dazed look in his eyes.
What the hell just happened?
That was exactly what William Baker wanted to ask.
He'd only wanted to steal a car and flee this heartbreaking city of New York, but before the threat could even leave his mouth, the world spun and the man from the car had already put him on the ground.
By now, Uncle Ben had his foot planted on William's wrist. William's pistol had fallen into Ben's hands, and with a quick shake, the small handgun was instantly stripped into a pile of parts scattered everywhere.
The deftness of it made William Baker's eyebrows twitch.
Monstrous strength and expert technique—are you Captain America?
He genuinely wanted to ask. Was this still New York? Since when did any random person on the street have skills like that?
"I can't believe we'd run into a mugger in Queens."
Aunt May stepped unhurriedly out of the car, frowning at William and shaking her head.
Uncle Ben, however, wasn't surprised.
"Probably not from Queens. Hell's Kitchen is gone, so the gangsters from there have been spreading all across New York."
Even so, most street thugs didn't dare stir up trouble in Queens. The Pulaimosi security forces were just too strong—they'd long since made a name for themselves.
Unfortunately, William Baker had just gotten out of prison and didn't know any of this.
So, he went down.
Seeing the thoroughly bitter look on William Baker's face, Uncle Ben figured the man must have his own story and his own hardships. But no matter what, none of that was an excuse to do evil.
If the person William Baker had run into tonight hadn't been him, but someone else, a life might well have been lost.
Just then, the people from the boxing gym and the police finally arrived. After handing William Baker over to the officers, Uncle Ben and Aunt May put the matter out of their minds.
"Flint Marko, you again."
Inside the squad car, the officer pulled up William Baker's file, though William hadn't yet had a chance to switch back to his old identity.
"Not even a day out of prison, and already committing robbery and attempted murder with a firearm. This time you're getting put away for at least a few years!"
Hearing those words, William Baker's body went rigid. He said nothing, only letting his miserable face droop down, hidden in the dark.
I have to find a way to escape!
He thought.
My daughter's illness won't wait. I finally got out of prison—if I'm locked up for years again, what happens to her medical bills?
William Baker clenched his fists.
His gaze flicked forward to the completely unsuspecting officer. Steeling his heart, he made a bold decision.
We'll set aside William Baker's next move for now.
In the futuristic world of 2099, Spider-Man 2099—Miguel O'Hara—was observing this very universe.
"Broken again."
He spoke in a low, gravelly voice.
Naturally, what Miguel O'Hara was referring to was a Canon Event.
But he wasn't the architect of Canon Events—he was their victim. Once, Miguel O'Hara had tried to replace a dead version of himself in another universe, believing that doing so would let him live a happy life. His actions shattered a Canon Event, causing that entire universe to collapse and be destroyed.
Ever since, he'd been atoning, all to preserve the balance of the Spider-Verse and prevent the same thing from happening again.
To that end, he'd built a headquarters in this universe and recruited tens of thousands of Spider-People. Most of them were Peter Parkers, but there were other Spider-People too.
He had noticed the anomaly in this particular universe a long time ago.
Because in this universe, Peter Parker had an unusual cousin—something that had never appeared in any of the countless thousands of other universes. For a long while, Bant Parker's existence didn't seem to bring about any real changes to that universe, so Miguel gradually overlooked its peculiarity.
Until not long ago, when Peter Parker finally became Spider-Man, Miguel remembered that universe and conducted an observation.
One look and he was stunned.
When Miguel turned his gaze back to Bant's universe, Bant had already killed Dennis Carradine—the very man who was supposed to trigger a Canon Event. But what shocked Miguel was that the universe had not collapsed because of it.
Could it be... that someone else triggers the Canon Event?
Confused, Miguel continued observing Bant's universe.
Today, he witnessed Uncle Ben falling into danger once again. If things had followed the normal sequence of a Canon Event, without any surprises, Uncle Ben should have been shot by the handgun and bled to death.
No—that universe had two Spider-People. By all reason, neither Uncle Ben nor Aunt May should have been able to escape their fates. Coincidentally, both of them had been in the same car.
But the actual course of events had been the exact opposite.
Uncle Ben, injected with the Super-Soldier Serum, had subdued William Baker with a single hand, grinding the so-called Canon Event beneath his heel.
And the instigator behind it all was, of course, Bant Parker.
"Breaking a Canon Event is easy. With an outside warning, any Spider-Person can do it," Miguel muttered to himself. "But why hasn't his universe collapsed because of it?"
"Bant Parker... what makes you so special?"
Try as he might, Miguel couldn't wrap his head around it. So he resolved to try and make contact.
But before Miguel could act, another disturbance occurred.
The perspective shifts back to Bant's universe.
Kamar-Taj, located in another time zone, was still in broad daylight. Bant was continuing his practice of Tianneng spells in the courtyard when suddenly, the space before him caved inward, forming a dazzling, multicolored spatial passage.
"Is this...?"
"Did it work?"
Bant froze for a moment, but quickly shook his head. He hadn't detected any new energy within his body. The origin of this spatial passage was clearly no simple matter.
"It comes from the Multiverse."
The Ancient One had clearly been alerted as well.
A Multiversal spatial passage appearing right in Kamar-Taj?
Bant's expression turned a little strange. He shot a glance at the Ancient One and fanned the flames: "Isn't this like daring to piss on the Sorcerer Supreme's doorstep—a direct slap in the face? Can you really let that slide? If it were me, there's no way I'd take that lying down!"
But the Ancient One remained perfectly calm. "Occasionally, people who don't understand the Multiverse do such things, especially scientists. The infinite possibilities of the Multiverse drive them to obsession and madness."
"Still, this is an opportunity. Journeying through the Multiverse will also aid your cultivation of Tianneng."
The Ancient One's meaning was plain.
She gestured for Bant to step inside.
"For real?"
Dubious, Bant took a step toward the tunnel. In an instant, a powerful suction force erupted—the spacetime passage, like the eye of a storm, tried to pull Bant in. But using his bio-electricity to anchor himself, Bant stood perfectly steady.
He thought the Ancient One was spouting nonsense.
What did cultivating Tianneng have to do with the Multiverse?
"I think you just want to rope me into working for you."
The Ancient One shook her head. "Tianneng's upper limits are very high. If you want it to eventually become a Multiversal-level power like the Phoenix Force or Chaos Magic, gaining insight into the Multiverse is genuinely a good thing."
"Besides, this spacetime passage really did come looking for you."
In that short span of time, the Ancient One had already discerned the tunnel's point of origin.
Hearing this, Bant didn't hesitate any longer and walked directly into the spacetime passage. As far as he was concerned, the Ancient One's credibility was still solid—just a few days ago, the old baldhead had entrusted him with the Time Stone. And since the Ancient One wanted his Tianneng, there was no way she'd let anything happen to him.
What greeted his eyes was a hallucinatory swirl of vibrant, colorful light.
The moment he entered the spacetime tunnel, Bant truly did feel a special kind of energy enveloping his body. But before he could properly sense it, the passage had already reached its end—
Whoooosh—
The sound of tearing wind filled his ears. Bant's feet found nothing beneath him, and in an instant, he plummeted downward. The pull of gravity was exceptionally pronounced in that moment, yanking his body from ten thousand meters in the air, intent on smashing him into a pulp!
Clouds rushed past wildly. Bant looked down and discovered that somehow, he had ended up in the sky above New York.
Beneath him was unmistakably another brilliantly lit New York City.
As he fell, he spread his hands helplessly. "For some reason, I don't find this strange at all."
"After all, besides a peaceful New York, where else would you run into so much danger on a daily basis?"
With that mild snark out of the way, Bant had long since recognized that this New York was nowhere near the one in his own universe. The New York in his universe was still being rebuilt and wouldn't recover for at least a year.
"Let me see," Bant said, raising his watch and cycling through, selecting a hero. "Heatblast, Big Chill, Jetray, Astrodactyl..."
Finally, the silhouette on the watch settled on a hulking figure.
"Gravattack?"
"Nice, you're up!"
Gravattack could control gravity and counteract the Earth's gravitational pull. Possessing its own orbit, it also qualified as a flying alien hero. More importantly, Bant had never transformed into Gravattack before!
He was just about to press the watch when a clear, bright voice suddenly rang out from above him.
"Hold on!"
"Huh?" Bant looked up in surprise and saw a white-and-pink figure struggling to dive down through the night sky.
"Is that... Spider-Gwen? I've landed in the Gwen Spider-Verse?"
Gwen had no idea what Bant was thinking. Honestly, she didn't even know where she was right now.
A few minutes ago, she'd been fighting crime on the streets of New York when a portal had appeared before her eyes, whisking her straight to this place. Ten thousand meters in the sky—the city below was smaller than ants.
Without time to think, she spotted Bant plunging straight down with no protection whatsoever.
If he hit the ground from this height, what would be left of him?
At the sight, Gwen, who'd originally planned to deploy her glider, instead pressed her arms tight against her thighs and dove toward Bant like a straight-flying arrow.
"Spread your body out!"
Gwen shouted at Bant, but her voice was instantly left far behind.
She didn't even know if her shouts could reach his ears, but at their current rate of descent, Gwen couldn't guarantee she'd catch up to him before they reached a safe altitude for slowing down.
She was frantic, but the webs she shot were left just as far behind as her voice.
"No good, we're falling too fast!"
"I can't save him!"
At that moment, an acceleration of 9.8 meters per second squared was dragging them down. In just a matter of seconds, they had already plunged several thousand meters. At this rate, forget saving someone else—Gwen herself wouldn't have time to decelerate and would be smashed to death!
Do I have to give up?
Can I only watch that person fall to his death?
Just like Peter...
Gwen thought in despair.
That stabbing, agonizing memory surged into her mind once again. Once before, just like this, she'd watched her friend Peter Parker die in her arms like a monster, powerless to do a single thing.
And now, she was about to watch helplessly as yet another innocent person died.
That person had probably been dragged here by that strange passage, just like her. Gwen still didn't understand what that passage truly was, but if the enemy had been coming for her, it meant the person in front of her right now was very likely an ordinary civilian caught up in danger because of her.
If anything happened to him, it would be no different from her killing him herself.
The falling speed grew faster and faster. The familiar, bustling New York City kept expanding before Gwen's eyes, and her despair grew deeper and deeper.
She had long since passed the optimal altitude for deceleration. Even if she deployed her glider now, with her level of physical durability, she'd probably still break several bones. And what was even more despairing was that she still hadn't caught up to the falling person.
There was still a gap of several meters between them.
A few meters might not sound like much, but in that fleeting, vanishing instant, it was the distance between life and death.
Gwen stretched out her hand with everything she had, the bio-electricity between her palms even taking on visible shape.
They were like two shooting stars falling from the starry sky toward the city, chasing endlessly but unable to draw close.
I can't reach him!
Gwen knew this perfectly well.
But she just didn't want to give up. She'd already watched her best friend die right before her eyes once. She didn't want to see it a second time.
Even if she herself ended up smashed to pieces, Gwen didn't want to give up.
That's what it meant to be Spider-Man.
From the moment he heard Gwen's voice, Bant had wanted to see just how far she could go.
She hadn't managed to turn the tide, but Gwen had clearly lived up to the Spider-Man name. At least in Bant's eyes, she'd done far better than he ever had. If there was anyone among the many Spider-People who didn't deserve that mantle, Bant felt it was definitely himself.
It had nothing to do with strength. It was about the kindness and self-sacrifice that Spider-Man represented.
However...
Bant glanced down. The city was already alarmingly close.
"At this rate I'm really going to fall to my death."
He pressed his watch.
"Gravattack!"
/-\
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