Chapter 279

Chapter 279:

–Gwen Stacy–

Gwen found it strange that attending school in another universe was so much easier than back home. Everything here was different, and there was nothing to remind her of her best friend, Peter—the best friend she had accidentally killed…

"Morning, Gwanda—er, I mean Gwen."

Her depressing thoughts were interrupted when this universe's Spider-Man walked up to her in the hallway. She had revealed her identity to Miles yesterday after finding him strung up in the woods with an older, heavier version of Peter Parker from yet another universe. They had both broken into the female Dr. Octavius's lab earlier and botched their escape.

"Good morning, Miles. Ready for another boring day of school?" she asked with a yawn. Gwen had been up all night investigating the tech they had stolen from Doc Ock.

"I guess so," Miles shrugged. "School just doesn't seem that important anymore. I don't know why you even bother attending."

"Just because I'm lost in the wrong universe doesn't mean I don't want a good education," she pointed out. "Besides, if I hadn't come to school, I never would have met a cool guy like you," she added with a soft smile.

And there was Miles's adorable blush… He did that every time she complimented him.

Yes, she knew he had a small crush on her. She wasn't that dense. But she also knew nothing could ever come of it. Gwen didn't have much time left in this universe; she needed to find a way home before the glitches killed her. Every day they were getting worse. What started as minor annoyances now felt like seizures every time they occurred…

The bell rang, and the two headed to their first class. They had science together in the mornings, and this week they were studying evolution. Gwen sat at the desk next to Miles.

"Hey, where's the teacher?" Miles asked the kid in front of them. "Mr. Miller is never late."

The guy shrugged. "I think he's out sick today. I heard we have a woman subbing. A couple of guys saw her this morning. Apparently, she's really hot!"

"Nice!" Miles said, fist-bumping the other guy.

Gwen scoffed loud enough for both boys to hear her. Teenage boys always had a one-track mind. 'How hot could a substitute teacher even be–' The door slid open, and a woman wearing a very tight, form-fitting suit walked into the room. Gwen's jaw dropped when she saw the woman. 'Holy shit! I've never hated being a teenager this much before!' 

"Good morning, class. I'm Layla, and I'll be your substitute teacher for the day." The gorgeous teacher introduced herself. Immediately, almost every guy—and a few girls—in the classroom raised their hands. Gwen found her hand included among them. She didn't even know why she raised her hand; she just wanted the incredibly beautiful woman to acknowledge her. She received numerous jealous glares when Layla ended up calling on her.

"Yes? Did you have a question?" Layla asked Gwen.

"Erm—" Gwen didn't actually know what to say. She just blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Do you have a last name? We don't usually call teachers by their first names here," she said out loud before she felt like kicking herself. Since when had she become such a stickler for the rules? Now everyone was giving her weird glances.

"I actually don't have a last name," Layla replied with a shrug. "A handful of my siblings do, but I'm not one of them," she explained.

'Wait… what?' There were curious murmurs around the classroom after Layla's surprising statement. Was the new substitute messing with them? Who doesn't have a last name?

Layla seemed to ignore the murmurs and walked over to the blackboard. "Okay, class. What was your previous teacher… um… teaching you all?" Layla asked with a slight pause. "He left behind some notes for me, but I didn't bother reading them," she admitted.

Miles started snickering next to Gwen. "This lady is funny…"

"We were learning about human evolution," One of the girls sitting at the front said. 

"Oh… Yeah, I don't really know anything about evolution," Layla admitted, and Gwen's jaw dropped for the second time. "It's not real anyway," Layla stated.

"Eh!"

"What?"

"What the hell is she talking about?"

The students blurted out in disbelief, their eyes fixed on the substitute.

"What do you mean it's not real?!" Gwen stood up, slamming her hands on the desk. "Of course it's real! Humans didn't just spring up out of nowhere."

Layla tilted her head in puzzlement before apologizing. "Oh, I might have misspoken. Evolution is real—we have proof of animals adapting to their environments across the globe. Even humans have evolved certain traits over thousands of years depending on their environments. What I meant to say is that evolution isn't the reason for the existence of the human race. Humans were created, after all," Layla clarified.

And then something happened that truly shocked Gwen. Fourteen pitch-black wings suddenly unfurled behind Layla. They were incredibly beautiful but also terrifying. Gwen immediately tensed, preparing for an attack. Was Layla a supervillain here to target her and Miles? Were they about to have to expose their secret identities to save the other students? Gwen would do it without hesitation, but she wasn't sure if Miles would. She glanced nervously to her side and found that he, like the rest of the class, was frozen in shock.

Layla cleared her throat before speaking again. "I suppose I should properly introduce myself. I am Layla of the Fallen, and yes, I am a genuine fallen angel. Does anyone have any questions for me?"

Gwen's mind blanked as every single student's hand shot into the air, and the classroom devolved into chaos, with everyone shouting over each other to get their questions out. And there were a lot of questions…

…

Layla had simply walked out of the room when the bell rang, never making a move to attack or expose either of them.

"What the fuck…" Miles muttered as the class ended. They didn't learn a single thing about science, considering the whole class had devolved into a Q&A session with a mythical being. 

"I've seen some weird shit, but that is now at the top of the list," Gwen admitted to Miles. "I kind of regret being a staunch atheist all these years…" she trailed off, her eyes widening. Was she going to have to start attending church now? Ugh, that sounded like such a total drag!

"How do we know she wasn't some villain trying to trick us? Spider-Man has fought mutant-looking villains before," Miles said before looking down in sadness. He always got that way when anyone mentioned this Univere's dead Peter Parker.

"Her wings were massive, Miles. They might have had more mass than her entire body. They literally sprang forth out of nowhere," Gwen pointed out. On top of that, Layla had this aura around her that made Gwen feel… small. Like no matter what she tried, she would never be able to defeat Layla in a fight. That should make sense, considering she was pretty sure Layla was possibly an Archangel. Gwen had read enough teen fiction to know that having fourteen wings meant Layla was a big deal "upstairs."

"That doesn't prove anything. Maybe she has some kind of high-tech pocket dimension on her back," Miles countered. "Those wings might be artificial, just like that crazy octopus lady I had to run away from yesterday!" 

"I doubt it," Gwen said as they made their way to their next class. They both had art class together, but she suspected they wouldn't be attending the rest of their classes today. They were stopped in the hallway by the topic of their discussion—Layla, standing directly in front of them. Students walked around her as if she wasn't even there. No one but them seemed to notice her existence.

"Meet me on the roof," Layla told them before vanishing.

Miles jumped in fright. "Holy crap, she can teleport too!?"

"She can probably do a lot more than that. C'mon, let's meet her on the roof. She clearly knows our identities," Gwen said, starting to walk before he had time to argue.

"I hope my parents don't find out how much class I've been cutting lately," Miles lamented as he followed her up the stairs.

–Layla–

It's always fun messing with humans and breaking their conceptions of how the world works.

[The best part is no one is going to believe any of those kids when they tell everyone their substitute teacher is an Angel.]

I snickered at that. This school had a no cell phone policy, and none of the students were able to record me. Unfortunately, I couldn't mess around with any other classes today. I wasn't on a tight timeframe, but there were people waiting for me.

The door to the roof swung open.

Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales stepped out and walked over to me. Miles looked nervous and somewhat distrustful, while Gwen appeared more confident, though I could still see a hint of caution in her eyes. That was a good trait for a budding superheroine—it would keep her alive longer.

"So," Gwen began, "what are we doing up here? You clearly know who we are. Are you from another universe too?" she asked. Smart girl to figure that out so quickly.

"You're from another universe?!" Miles sounded surprised. "Are you some kind of spider angel? Angel spider?"

That was a fair question, considering the collider only summoned Spider-People to this universe.

"No," I replied. "My universe's Spider-Man was about to be sucked into a portal, and I traded places with him before that could happen."

"That's cool," Gwen said. "So what did you want with us? Are you here to team up so we can all go home?"

"I can go home anytime I want," I said, waving my hand. A portal manifested next to me, revealing my universe's Central Park. A couple walking their dog stopped and stared at the portal and me in confusion. I gave them a small wave, and they awkwardly waved back before I closed the portal again. "As you can see, I'm not trapped here."

Gwen's eyes lit up. "Whoa! You can open portals to other universes with the wave of your hand!? How does that even work?"

"It's a power I gained from a moon-sized eldritch space monster that may or may not see me as its adopted daughter. It's a whole thing I don't want to get into right now," I said with a shrug. Their horrified faces were priceless. "The reason I came to your school was to collect the flash drive from you, Miles," I added, pointing to him.

Miles narrowed his eyes defensively and took a step back. "The flash drive? Why do you want that? Spider-Man entrusted it to me for safekeeping; I'm not just going to hand it over!"

"Miles!" Gwen chastised him. "At least hear her out before you say no!"

At least one of them was willing to be reasonable. I gave Gwen a thankful nod before continuing. "The Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, built a powerful super collider. It's the reason Spider-People from other universes are ending up here. The collider is stable for the moment, but that might not be the case for much longer. The flash drive is the key to safely shutting it down and decommissioning it. Without that drive… well, things will get bad."

"How bad?" Gwen asked.

"Half the planet might blow up," I said, and they both sputtered in disbelief.

"Give her the damn flash drive, Miles!" Gwen immediately ordered. 

"Alright, alright, fuck…" Miles muttered as he reached into his pocket. "Here, take it. You better not be lying to us."

I stored it in my inventory and assured them that I wasn't. I then explained the deal I made with Wilson Fisk—specifically, the part where I agreed to revive his dead wife and son if he shut down the collider after reversing it to send all the Spider-People home. Miles looked at me in shock when I mentioned reviving the dead so casually. This kid needed to start getting with the program if he was going to be another Spider-Man. 

He would see so much weirder shit in his lifetime.

On the other hand, Gwen looked relieved after my explanation. "You don't know how glad I am to hear that. The glitches have been getting a lot worse. I don't know if I can take them for another few days."

"Probably not," I said. "This universe is literally trying to scrub you and the other Spider-People out of existence. It doesn't care about me, but for some reason, it doesn't tolerate extra-dimensional Spider-People–"

"Hold up! You can bring people back from the dead!?" Miles interrupted, his eyes wide with hope. "Can you revive Spider-Man?"

"Been there, done that," I said casually. "How do you think I found out about all this stuff in the first place? We were working together yesterday after I rescued his body from being experimented on by Oscorp."

Miles slumped to his knees and started crying. "Thank you… I felt so guilty. It was my fault that Spider-Man died in the first place," he said in between sobs. At least he had the decency to feel guilty about causing the death of this world's only hero. 

Gwen patted him on the shoulder. "Don't think like that, Miles. It wasn't your fault," she tried to reassure him.

"No, it was," I said bluntly, causing Gwen to give me a small glare. "There's no use sugarcoating it, Miles. Had you not been there, Spider-Man wouldn't have been killed. At the same time, it was also his fault for sacrificing himself to save you. He had a pregnant wife at home, and he chose to throw away his future with his family for a stranger he'd never met." I could never be so self sacrificing. Peter didn't know anything about Miles, what if he grew up to be an evil Spider-Man or something. There would be no one left to stop him. That was all hypothetical of course, Miles seemed like a normal enough kid, but my argument still stands. "If you want to make it up to him, you should start training your powers with him. Become a hero that you both can be proud of.

He wiped his tears and stood up, his face set with determination. "I will!" he declared.

A second later, his expression turned to shock. I wondered what changed his mood so fast. He lunged towards Gwen and yanked her down. Had he not pulled her down in time, then they would have been hit by what immediately followed.

{-50HP}

I felt something hot slam into my chest. I glanced down and saw that my fancy suit was ruined. The cotton had been burned away, giving the world a small glimpse of my cleavage. Someone had shot me with some kind of plasma weapon, though it didn't do any lasting damage. My HP was already fully recovered. Being overpowered had its perks, especially when people were trying to kill you.

I snapped my fingers, and my outfit instantly changed. I replaced my ruined top with Death's dress, my signature look at this point.

"Fucking eggheads told me this weapon was supposed to kill anything. It didn't even hurt the bitch!" a robotic voice complained as a pair of heavy boots thudded on the rooftop. "That's the last time I trust anything made by Oscorp." I turned around and saw the Prowler standing directly across from us, holding a smoking gun before tossing it away carelessly.

A look of confusion appeared on my face. "What the hell are you doing? Don't you work for Fisk? We had a deal." I knew the Kingpin was a villain and I shouldn't have trusted him, but I honestly didn't think he would betray the one person who was going to revive his family.

Fat chance of that happening now!

"I'm under new management. There's no deal anymore. Hand over the flash drive and I'll make your death quick!" The Prowler threatened me. Clearly, no one had ever taught this guy proper negotiation.

Gwen and Miles pulled themselves up, both glaring at the Prowler. "What the hell, man? You could have killed us both!" Miles shouted at the villain.

The Prowler didn't seem to care at first. "As if I care about a couple of dumb kids—wait… Miles!?" He suddenly looked taken aback. "What the hell are you doing here!?"

"How do you know my name!?" Miles exclaimed. "Who are you?"

The Prowler reached up and pulled off his mask.

"U—Uncle Aaron!?" Miles shouted in disbelief.

"Your uncle is a supervillain!?" Gwen shouted as well. She looked at Miles in betrayal.

[I sense some drama here… Pull out the popcorn!]

'Way ahead of you, System!' I pulled out some movie theater popcorn from my inventory—perfectly fresh and hot, thanks to the fact that time doesn't pass in there. I started chowing down as the family drama unfolded.

XXX