The path to Peter Parker's childhood home was a route both Ben and Gwen knew by heart, a map seemingly etched into their very DNA. It didn't take them long to find the house, nestled on a quiet street in Queens.
"It looks… newer than the house in my universe," Gwen commented, tilting her head. She had changed into a set of spare clothes Ben had synthesized for her, and they both looked like ordinary high school students. "Are you sure this is Peter's house? I mean, since we're in a different universe, maybe the address is different too?"
The house before them, while not opulent, had a well-maintained, modern look that Gwen found hard to associate with the financially strained Parker family she remembered.
Ben nodded, taking it in. "It's definitely not the classic version, but the Peter in this universe is clearly a different case." He walked up the stone path and rang the doorbell.
After a moment, the door opened, and a gray-haired woman looked out, her eyes widening slightly in surprise at the two teenagers on her doorstep. It was Aunt May.
"Hi, I'm Gwen…" Gwen began, her voice suddenly catching in her throat. In her haste to get here, she hadn't considered the most obvious complication: what if this Aunt May already knew a Gwen Stacy? How would she explain this?
Panic seized her. Her expression twisted into a strange grimace as she frantically tried to come up with a cover story. She shot a look at Ben, her eyes squeezed so tightly in a desperate wink that she could have cracked a walnut between her eyelids. A strange, strangled syllable, something like a chicken's squawk, escaped her throat.
Aunt May blinked, her polite smile unwavering, though a flicker of confusion crossed her face. This child is lovely, she thought with immense sympathy, but perhaps not entirely well.
"What are you doing?" Ben muttered, rolling his eyes at Gwen's frantic miming. He turned to the woman at the door. "Aunt May, we're here to find Peter."
He already had the measure of this universe and saw no point in the convoluted secrecy that Gwen was attempting. "We're from different universes," he stated plainly. "She's Gwen Stacy, I'm Ben Parker, and we're both Spider-Man." To punctuate the statement, he flicked his wrist, shooting a stream of webbing that landed neatly in Gwen's hair.
"Hey!" Gwen cried out, swatting at the sticky mess. "Why do you keep doing that?"
"It's easier than trying to convince you to be direct," Ben said matter-of-factly. "Besides, it'll dissolve in a couple of hours."
"It's in my hair!" she hissed, yanking at the white strands. "And why would you just tell her everything? We can't let Aunt May know! Peter would worry!"
"Don't worry," a calm voice interjected. "I already knew."
Aunt May looked between the two bickering spider-teens, her expression a mask of strained composure. While she had long known her own nephew was Spider-Man, the concept of parallel universes was a bit more than she had bargained for on a Tuesday evening. And Ben Parker… her eyes drifted to the boy who shared her husband name.
"Why don't you both come inside," she said, stepping aside. "This feels like a conversation we shouldn't be having on the doorstep."
As they stepped into the warm, inviting home, Gwen looked at May in astonishment. "You knew Peter was Spider-Man? Did he tell you?" A fresh wave of conflict washed over her. If this Aunt May knew and accepted Peter's identity, did that mean she should tell her own father? The thought was terrifying. Her father, Captain Stacy, was convinced Spider-Woman had murdered Peter. What would he do if he learned the truth? Accept her? Or, in the name of justice, would he try to arrest his own daughter?
Aunt May led them to the living room sofa and poured them both a cup of tea before answering. "He didn't want to tell me," she said with a soft, knowing smile. "I figured it out myself. A mother knows her son. How could I not recognize him?"
"My dad wouldn't recognize me," Gwen mumbled into her teacup, shrinking into herself like an abandoned puppy. The simple, unconditional love in May's voice was a stark contrast to her own situation, and it made her heart ache. Her own father didn't just fail to recognize her; he treated her like a monster.
Shaking off the melancholy, she remembered her mission. "So, where is Peter?"
"Oh, he hasn't lived with me for a long time," Aunt May said with a nostalgic air. "He moved out after college, bought a new house after he married Mary Jane. But don't you worry, I've already called him. He's on his way."
Hearing her mention Mary Jane gave Ben a strange, momentary jolt, but he quickly dismissed it. He knew better than anyone that individuals across universes were different. They might share names and faces, but their lives and choices diverged. For every universe where Mary Jane was Peter's soulmate, there was another where she wasn't. Genetically, the Mary Jane of this universe was no more related to his MJ than a complete stranger.
As he was thinking, Aunt May fixed her gentle but inquisitive gaze on him. "You said your name was Ben Parker," she began. "What… what exactly is your story?"
"In my universe, I'm the child you and Uncle Ben adopted," Ben explained softly. "I was born a little earlier than Peter. I learned to call you Mom and Dad, and Peter is my little brother." He went on to tell her a few things about his world, carefully editing out the more traumatic details. When Aunt May heard that in his universe, her Ben was still alive and well, her eyes filled with tears she couldn't hold back.
Gwen nudged him lightly with her foot. "You talk about this universe's Peter being happy and perfect," she whispered with envious awe, "but you're on a whole other level."
Ben just smirked. It's all thanks to my own hard work! Right, Omnitrix? The watch on his wrist remained silent, which he took as agreement.
They chatted for a while longer, and then, around midnight, this universe's Peter Parker finally arrived, swinging through an open window.
"Aunt May, what's going on?" he asked, his voice laced with concern. "I was investigating some weird energy readings over in Brooklyn when…" His voice trailed off, and his entire body went rigid, as if he'd been struck by lightning. He looked like a hedgehog whose every quill had just stood on end. His gaze was locked on the two teenagers sitting on the sofa.
"Hey… you guys?" he stammered. In all his years as Spider-Man, his spider-sense had saved his life countless times. But it had never felt like this. It wasn't a warning of danger. It was a buzzing, overwhelming hum of… recognition. Of kinship.
He narrowed his eyes, half-surprised and half-vigilant, but seeing them sipping tea with his Aunt May sitting calmly beside them, he relaxed slightly. "You guys are… Spider-Man, too? What is going on?"
Ben sighed dramatically. "Okay, let's do this again. Classic opening." He cleared his throat. "My name is Ben Parker, And I am the second Spiderman from where I came from, Named Prime."
Gwen then followed suit. "My name is Gwen Stacy, and for the last two years, I've been the one and only Spider-Woman—"
"Wait!" Peter interrupted, making Gwen scowl. "You're Gwen Stacy? But I know a Gwen Stacy, and you… you're not her." He took off his mask, revealing a tired, unshaven face and thinning blond hair.
"Multiverse," Gwen said with an exasperated wave of her hand. "It's a long story, we've been over this."
"It's amazing," the older Peter breathed. "The multiverse is real!"
"This surprised me once before," Gwen deadpanned.
"Right, when so many Spider-People get together, there's way too much talking," Ben complained, getting to his feet. He was already the quiet one in his own duo. "Let's get to the point."
He activated his phone, and his AI, E.U.N.I.C.E., projected several complex, three-dimensional graphics into the air above the coffee table. "Gwen and I are from different universes. We're here because this universe is facing a multiversal collision crisis. And the person who started it all is Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin."
"Wait, how do you know that?" Gwen frowned. He had arrived with her, yet he seemed to know more about this place than the man who actually lived here.
"My AI has been gathering data since the moment we arrived," Ben explained.
"You have an AI?!" Gwen exclaimed, looking at him like he'd just grown a second head. "Dude, are you sure you're a Spider-Man? Your life seems way too functional." She looked at the advanced displays, then at her own tattered costume. "Why do you have everything, and I have nothing?" If all the Spider-Men in the multiverse were a family, Ben was clearly the one who had inherited the entire fortune.
"Want to experience something different?" Ben said, a wicked glint in his eye. "It's easy. Ever thought about trying a symbiote suit?"
"A symbiote? Like Venom?" Peter B. Parker recoiled, his face paling. "Trust me, kid, that's not a good road to go down."
But Ben just smiled mysteriously. "Not Venom. Something… better."
"What's a symbiote?" Gwen asked, her curiosity piqued.
Peter opened his mouth to explain, but Ben cut him off. "You'll see," he said to Gwen. "Just say whether you want one or not."
Gwen's eyes lit up. "Heck yeah, I want one!" She was practically vibrating with excitement. "So, what are we waiting for? Let's go take down Kingpin right now!"
"Have you already forgotten the time paradox?" Ben lightly bonked her on the head, making her yelp. He patiently explained the situation again: they couldn't interfere directly until the collision event reached its nexus point, or they risked making everything worse.
"Not only that," Ben continued, "but because the collision has caused temporal chaos, it's likely that more of us have been pulled here, all appearing at different points in time. We have to find them and send them back, or else—"
He was cut off as Gwen, sitting next to him, suddenly screamed in pain. Her body twisted violently, her form dissolving into a glitching, colorful mosaic of static and light.
The sudden change horrified both Aunt May and Peter. Just as quickly as it started, the glitching stopped, and Gwen's form solidified again. Ben was quick enough to catch her as she slumped forward, weak and trembling.
"—or else," Ben finished grimly, "we get rejected by the universe. Our cells decay until we're wiped out like a foreign virus." He held the trembling Gwen, letting her catch her breath. "That's why we have to wait. There are others coming."
"Then how do we know how many universes were affected?" Peter asked, his face serious.
Ben knew from the movie there were seven, which meant eight including him. But his presence here was an unknown variable. "Here's the plan. I'll create a few devices that can stabilize our cellular structure and counteract the decay. If another Spider shows up, you give them one. For now, they'll almost certainly head for Queens when they arrive." He looked at Gwen. She clearly needed one now.
"You can just… make a device like that?" Gwen asked, looking up at him from his arms, her eyes wide with a mixture of pain and awe. "Besides giving birth, is there anything you can't do?"
Ben thought for a moment of the Necrofriggian DNA in the Omnitrix—of Big Chill—and a slow, cryptic smile spread across his face.
"Sorry," he said. "I can do that, too."