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mercurydancer · 11 months

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Burning Matches Pt. 2

Adaptation

This was all written like. Directly after Into the SpiderVerse came out and kind of ignored the ending bumper with Miguel because I didn't know what was coming. So! We're going to say this is an alternate universe of an alternate universe.

Not like it's out of the question LOL

Peni Parker was smart. She had learned how to hack into a mainframe when she was six, and she had been making her own mechanical suits since she was eight. Her father’s death had catapulted her headfirst into the role of pilot at nine, her main motivation for creating those suits fading with the sudden realization that the one that she wanted to pilot them would never be able to again. But there was something else that probably made her more dangerous and more efficient than anyone believed she could be:

Peni was adaptable.

When given the information that the only one that could use her father’s suit was her, Peni had gone with it. She had allowed the spider-half of the SP//dr CPU to bite her, and in turn she had gained the arachnid’s presence in her own brain…and she had also gained the ability to use the mech. Peni had taken to it like a fish to water and had been operating the mech successfully for five years. She had learned how to use the SP//dr’s own abilities and make them her own, she had learned how to hack those same mainframes when bullets were fired at her, and she had learned how to go with the flow when under constant pressure. It was why when the world suddenly changed around her in a way that pulled her into a swirling vortex of color, she didn’t panic, she instead sought to gain information.

It had been harder than she had originally anticipated. The universe she had found herself in had a significantly less advanced information system and it had been difficult to gain access to it. Yet, Peni was adaptable. She made it work as well as she could, until she felt the tugging in the back of her mind.

Finding the black-and-white man pressing himself to the side of a building had been odd at first. Okay, more than odd, it had been downright mind-blowing. There was nothing to explain why he was able to stick to the side of the condemned building, nothing to explain why he was absorbing all of the multicolored lights from the billboards and reflecting said light as white. He was an anomaly dressed in a trench coat and a spider-mask, complete with large bug-eyed lenses, and it was odd.

It was also kind of amazing.

Peni couldn’t stick to walls, she used her SP//dr for that, but here this man was, and he was pressed to it as though he was made for it. Even so, there was a kinship she felt to him, a mutual understanding born from something that she couldn’t quite grasp hold of. Yet, there had been some information that she had managed to glean from this world, and this was something that she actually recognized, even though she had not expected to see it so soon, nor quite in this manner.

She had seen the information in this world of someone called Spider-Man. Had seen videos of him swinging across New York with webs, stick to walls, and dodge things that he would have no knowledge about, and she thought that perhaps this man was the same. He was simply as out-of-place as her, but in a very different way.

Peni wondered if whatever had pulled her to this world had pulled him as well. It was what allowed her to do something else she hadn’t initially planned on doing.

It allowed her to be vulnerable. It allowed a bit of that fear to rise up and display itself before someone who she had no doubt would not take advantage. And besides…whatever fear she was feeling, whatever unvoiced anxiety she was struggling with, she could tell that he was in much worse condition than her. Even still, the moment she opened her mouth and allowed a surprised, almost awed “you’re like me” pass her lips, and heard the answering echo from him, she watched as everything that he was feeling was discarded. He stood before her, booted-feet easily keeping him stuck to the concrete as he stared into her revealed eyes as the hatch opened, and she found herself idly impressed.

‘Peter,’ as it turned out his name was, was also proving to be adaptable.

When he suggested that he was like her, and they both had similar out-of-place stylizations, and brought up the fact that this similarity likely wasn’t coincidence, she was sold. She was sold enough to not mind when it turned out that Peter couldn’t adapt quite quick enough. Peni herself was having trouble whenever she looked at him, she couldn’t imagine the agony of suddenly being hit with an almost infinite number of colors.

Peni’s tolerance was quickly turned to impressed when he suddenly flung himself away from her mech and threw out his own web halfway to their destination – a taller building so she could gain more signal (the past was weird). The web he threw out was as black as he was, a stark contrast to the white of her own, but she knew what it was as soon as she saw it. He kept pace with her easily, though he had to take two swings for every one of hers. Her extra five feet made up for a lot when it came to swinging, but he still managed to keep right alongside her.

Peni grinned as she realized that this wasn’t just someone that was like her, this was someone that she could trust. This was someone that would push themselves, would push her, and she needed that. Particularly when the rest of the world didn’t seem to want to stop throwing curve-balls at her.

The pig was…weird. He was colored, which was nice, but he seemed to disobey every law of physics there was.

Peter Porker did not adapt to the world around him. Porker made the world adapt to him.

He came in literally floating in the breeze by his nose, towards a hot-dog stand of all things. The only thing that saved the people from a panic-attack and potential questionings of sanity was a black web that was launched out, catching the pig, and bringing it to them. Peter Porker reacted to them in a similar way to the way that Peter and herself had reacted to each other, and gave his own story as they all stood on top of another building, out of the way of the people underneath as the sun set behind them

Adapt, Peni reminded herself, adapt. The poor black-and-white Peter looked absolutely boggled when she spared a glance his way. This wasn’t his day.

“So, I was a spider living in the basement of this wonderful pig named May Porker, right? Well one day she decides she wants to reinvent the hair-dryer and irradiates herself!” He throws his hands around as he describes this, and both Peni and Peter watched him silently, taking in his pacing. “And then she bit me, and I turned into a pig, with most of the abilities I had before when I was a spider! She’s been acting as my Aunt ever since, I think she feels bad for biting me, but it’s not been that bad of a gig! I get to save the world and aside from Pork-Grind, it’s been a pretty nice deal. I guess you can all call me Porker considering there’s another Peter that got here first, and that’s a good way to identify us. But what about your stories? Who are you guys?”

The explanations they gave had very little difference to the one that they had told each other, and Porker made a bit of an exaggerated “yeesh” sound as Peter finished his own story. “Lighten up a little,” he told him. Peter didn’t give him a response.

The fact that it was also a Peter that they found, though in this case given the last name of Porker, further emphasized the fact that this seemed extremely targeted. It also made the idea of seeing if this universe had an Aunt May even more appealing to Peni. Pete – something that black-and-white Peter suggested they call him when it became apparent that it was likely the Spider-Man of this universe was likely named Peter, and they couldn’t both be Peter – seemed extremely wary of the idea at first, but at both Porker and Peni’s combined pushing, he caved.

Peni found Aunt May’s address easily enough once she knew what to search for, as well as the confirmation she needed that it really was a Peter Parker that was swinging around the city. They had their safe-haven found, they had the one that could help them, and likely hook them up with her nephew in order to get them back home, in case Peter lived somewhere else. They would be able to help him fix what was wrong, they would save the world…

Later, Peni would almost wish that Pete hadn’t caved to their plan of finding Aunt May.

Peni hid SP//dr as she didn’t want to draw anymore stares than they already did, her spider friend carefully perched on her shoulder.

The way the door swung open and an older woman stepped out was something that Peni had not expected, nor was the sight of the baseball bat. She especially hadn’t expected the way she locked eyes on Pete and almost sagged. Peni watched as that Aunt May threw her arms around Pete, and how after a moment’s shock, Pete returned the embrace. They were brought into her house before attention could truly focus on them, and that was when they saw the television.

“Peter Parker found dead at 26,” read the ticker-tape on the news station it was turned to, and Peni felt her heart sink.

Pete tightened his grip on this aunt that wasn’t his, and the other two took a step back out of respect.

It was something else to adapt to, and they were good at that.

Adaptability was something that Miles did not seem to have.

It seemed to be something that he was learning, but for now he didn’t have it. He couldn’t react to Pete’s punches, not even when he loudly announced what he was about to do, he couldn’t react to Ham’s quick-talking, and he couldn’t react to her questions. He couldn’t turn invisible, he couldn’t shock anyone… Miles could barely swing, could barely cling to walls.

Miles couldn’t get back up.

Miles was the kid she never got to be.

Miles was the one that had never been forced to adapt, and while a part of her resented that, the rest of her envied that. Well, now the world was trying to force him, and he just…wasn’t ready. Peni didn’t hate him, nor did she want him to die, and it was with this in mind that she was one of the first to state that he couldn’t be of help to them. Pete’s voice was right there with hers, as was Porker’s, and while Gwen tried to say that she had seen him, knew he had potential, it seemed as though Miles knew he wasn’t ready to adapt either.

Miles ran, having finally managed to turn invisible, and Peni hoped that he stayed away, if only for his own safety. Miles isn’t like them, he can’t adapt, and Peni doesn’t want him to get hurt.

Pete couldn’t be the one to use the Goober.

When making it she had not considered the fact that he had never seen color before in his life. She had made the Goober with color, had designed it to be simple to use – for ones that had grown up with color, had learned their names and shades when they were growing up, not one that had never seen them. Pete kept trying with the Rubik’s cube, kept trying to name the colors, and he kept failing. He recognized his failure and took himself off the list of people that could stay behind. This was something that he couldn’t adapt to, not in time, and as soon as he recognized it, he stepped away. It was done with a grace she had not expected, even though she could see the way it killed him. He didn’t want to let Peter B do it, he didn’t want to let Gwen do it, his very nature hating the fact that he had to let another life take the hit, but he knew that he couldn’t do it.

Peter Porker had a similar problem, as being a pig he was used to color, but was color-blind in a way that was different to Pete’s. He reacted to the inability with a similar way to how he reacted to everything else, made a joke out of it. Peni wasn’t sure how to react to the cartoon pig that operated on a different level than they did, but she was willing to see how far he could take his ability to make things adapt to him and see what he could do.

Peni vowed to herself that as soon as she found something that she couldn’t adapt to, she would handle it like Pete.

When they finally went together to stop the Kingpin, the fight was worse than she had ever expected. It was also the most surprising. She hadn’t expected herself to suddenly be pinned to the ground as Scorpion hit and hit and hit and… Peni couldn’t do it.

Peni couldn’t adapt, she couldn’t get him to stop, she couldn’t get away, she was…she was going to die.

She let go…

And then she was saved.

Porker appeared out of nowhere and proved that there was so much more to him than met the eye, something she had known from the beginning. The large mallet he pulled out of his pocket and beat Scorpion with was a wonder, and if Peni hadn’t been struggling to get out of her crippled mech she would have been amazed. Pete came in then after Porker stunned him, and grabbed the Scorpion with his deadly tail, swinging him around in a circle as she finally managed to climb out of her busted mech and pulled the SP//dr’s leg away, holding it like a bat, making eye contact with Pete. Pete let go, sending the Scorpion flying towards her, and she finally hit him with that leg, sending him out into the void, rage filling her and fueling her. Her rage faded just as suddenly as it appeared, taking in the sight of her broken mech. Spider crawled out then, the small arachnid that was her best friend and had been her only companion crawling onto her hand as she offered it. She felt the words that he whispered into her skull, felt the soothing thrum of assurance in her head, and in the tapping of his pedipalps on her hand, and then there was someone behind her. When Pete offered her his shoulder, she accepted as she offered the Spider her own, and Pete swung her out and towards the Goober with the others, for one final goodbye, and she felt a smile stretch her face as she finally caught sight of Miles, a sudden burst of happiness hitting her even in her mourning over the lost mech.

Miles had adapted.

They would be okay. They’d all go home, and they’d be okay. Miles knew what he was, he knew who he was. He was Spider-Man. He could do it.

They said their goodbyes and their last words, and then they were gone.

Peni found herself in her universe down more friends than she ever wanted to lose, and for once in her life decided she didn’t want to adapt. She wasn’t going to quietly accept it like Pete had, she was going to do something different.

Peni was going to be like Porker. She was going to force the universe to adapt to her. She was bringing her Spider-Fam back, no matter how long it took her, and the universe, quite simply: could suck it.

#burning matches #spiderverse #into the spiderverse #spiderverse fanfic #peni parker #miles morales #peter b parker #peter porker #spidernoir #spiderman noir #peter benjamin parker #spider-ham and his world-breaking powers #b team needs more love #we're out here being adaptable #and thematically relevant lol #enjoy!

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mercurydancer · 11 months

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Burning Matches Pt. 1

Of New Sights and Colors

Summary: Ch. 3 - "In an idle sort of way, none of them had expected for Noir’s blood to be black. None of them had expected that their sudden appearance would be just the distraction that the Lizard had needed. None of them had expected for that very black and very unexpected blood to be painting the wall behind him as Lizard’s claws dug into his flesh, and sent his body flying limply to hit the wall with a wet-sounding smack." - A story based on recovery, color, and the knowledge that you're not alone.

In honor of the new Spider-Verse movie coming out, I am going to be posting the entirety of Burning Matches to tumblr. It's already posted on AO3 under the same title, username HopelesslyLost, so if you want it, you can find it. As it is, I've been avoiding it because it's HUGE, but I figure I might as well.

Buckle up.

It was horrifying. It was dizzying. His mind spiraled in a million different directions, his body pressing against hard concrete as he desperately attempted to draw breath into his lungs, fingers scrabbling at the building, seeking something, anything that he could use to ground himself. He closed his eyes, tilting his head back, trying to focus on the roughness of the concrete that he could feel, ripping his gloves off in order to be that much closer, barely remembering to shove them in a pocket as he did so. He didn’t even notice the fact that his fingers had dug into the rough edges to the point where they were starting to bleed.

His breath was still rattling in his lungs, his body still tense, but if he kept his eyelids closed, he could at least pretend that nothing had changed.

What had happened?

One moment, Peter had been swinging after some two-bit crooks, intent on putting them on ice after they had shot up one of the poorer localities…and in Hooverville, that was saying something. The next, he had somehow swung into something that squeezed him tighter than the Sandman, and hit harder, too. When he finally was spat out of whatever it was that caught him, he found himself here. This…this…

Peter didn’t know what this was. He didn’t know what was surrounding him, had no idea what was happening, why he was here, where here even was! What was happening? Slowly, slowly, Peter peered out through his goggles, his eyes squinted as narrow as he could make them and still be able to see.

It was like an icepick was driving into his skull.

Peter closed his eyes again, heaving a breath in, and letting it whistle out.

He was having a panic-attack, pressed to the side of an unknown building, and all because he didn’t know what he was seeing. What an absolute clusterfuck. This was stupid, this wasn’t him. He had adjusted to being bitten by a spider and seeing a Spider-God before him, he had adjusted to being able to shoot webs out of his own wrists, and climb on walls - he could do this.

He could do this.

He opened his eyes and kept them open against the searing brilliance that pierced him and forced himself to actually look at what surrounded him. It made his eyes water and his pupils kept sliding over everything, unable to focus on what he was seeing. Eventually finding it too much, he instead turned his attention up, away from the flashing of…whatever it was. Was he having a stroke? A seizure? What the fuck was going on?

Focus on the sky, Pete, focus on the sky, he thought to himself, heaving in another deep breath. The sky was…the sky was odd, too. It was as open and as big as his own, but the…he didn’t even know what to call it. He didn’t know what it was that was spread out over him, that was tinting everything… Peter focused on the big fluffy clouds that drifted across the sun, taking in their appearance, the way they were so normal, and finally closed his eyes again.

Maybe this was it, maybe he was dying.

A sudden pain lanced through his head, a sharp and sudden feeling that was like his spider-sense was on overdrive, giving him the feeling like there were a million spiders crawling up his spine. His eyes flew open and there was something else over him.

Peter’s first thought was to reach for his gun, to shoot the thing that was between him and the semi-familiar sight of the sky, but the thought faded as quickly as it came. As soon as he made…eye-contact? with the thing that was above him, the feeling of spiders changed to something else. Something familiar. It almost hurt, but it didn’t, a feeling of such strong connection it was almost like he was looking at himself in the mirror.

“You…” he started softly, distantly recognizing another softer, distorted, and certainly more feminine voice say the words at the same time, “you’re like me…”

A…hatch for lack of a better word, opened up in the strange metallic thing that rested over him, blocking the sun, and a…little girl stared down at him, her eyes wide and…he hadn’t ever seen eyes like that before. A little too big, a little too bright, but at the same time he still felt like he knew them. He felt like he knew the one that was looking at him, like he was connected to her. It was an odd thought and he wasn’t sure how much he liked it, but it stuck. Because she was like him.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked him, those eyes changing, becoming even bigger, if it were possible, worry in their depths.

“I…” he started, and then shook himself. Peter saw the way that she kept glancing around her as though waiting for someone to spot them, he saw the way that she pressed into the torso of her…machine, even as she asked how he was. This odd little girl was scared, and he didn’t want to cause her anymore fear. He took all of his fear, all of his pain, and all of his confusion and balled it up internally before shoving it deep under his ribs, to be ignored until he got a spare minute (the fact that he never got a spare minute was ignored).

“I’m sorry, kiddo, I’m fit as a fiddle, just…a little disoriented.” He focused on her face, focused on those eyes, fighting to ignore everything else. “Are you alright? Are you…from here?” He pushed himself away from the building, watching as the…robot? backed up a few paces as stood up before it, allowing them to stare at each other roughly eye-to-eye. She was covered in…whatever everything else was covered in, her clothing an odd light tone, and her face shaded much differently than he thought it should be. She looked as though she could have belonged…perhaps…if everything else wasn’t so…bright.

Sure enough, she shook her head.

“I was pulled here, I…don’t know what happened, exactly, but I think we’re both in an alternate dimension,” as she spoke her voice sharpened, and her expression cleared, all of her focus on him. The fear had left her in her rush to explain, and Peter knew immediately that this was her element. “You obviously don’t belong here, you’re completely in black and white which goes against everything around us, and everything that I have seen. I also don’t belong here, see, this is the year 2018, and I’m from the year 3145.”

“Woah, back-up, it’s 2018 here?” Peter asked, finding something else to trip him up. This was shortly followed by the realization, “You’re from 3145? Who are you, kiddo, what’s your name?”

“Yes,” she responded before straightening up and reciting, “My name is Peni Parker, and I work with the SP//dr mech, my father’s mech,” she patted the interior of the…mech she was in, said mech making a pleased-sounding chirp and putting its ‘hands’ on its ‘hips.’ “Before…before he died that is. I connect to it through a psychic link with a spider that lives within the robot and together we protect New York.” She grinned, and as she spoke Peter watched as a rather large spider crawled into view with a feeling of trepidation clawing its way up his spine, watching as it perched on her shoulder and gave a brief cheer. When it did nothing else he slowly allowed himself to relax, but couldn’t keep his gaze away from that spider. “We’re a great team!” She called out and held up a finger that...the Spider tapped back with one of its legs. What the fuck. After a moment of thought he resolved to leave it alone unless it got too close. Peter had been bit before. He wasn’t going to be bit again. “I love to hack into mainframes and I love New York!” She called out brightly and broke his train of thought, and the triumphant pose they had both fallen into after their...tap...held for another few seconds before breaking and she gave a slight frown. “What about you? I know you’re like me, I can feel it, but…”

“Well…” Peter paused, trying to think of a way to condense everything he had gone through into something that would be kid-friendly and wouldn’t make the kid either pity him or…be traumatized. “My name is Peter Parker. Where I’m from the year is 1933, and I’m a Private Investigator… I got bitten by a magic spider that gave me spider powers and I’ve been using them ever since to put a dent in the crime that plagues New York. I like…” he hesitated on what he could say that he liked, looking into those wide and interested eyes and fishing through the possibilities. “I like egg creams, and I like to punch Nazis.” He paused at seeing the way that she seemed to dim, not at the idea of him punching Nazis, he could tell, but…almost at the lack of enthusiasm, and spat out something else, “I like to let matches burn down to my fingertips, sometimes, so I can…” he let his voice die out.

Her expression had only turned sadder, somehow, the robot lowering itself from its proud pose into something more somber.

Smooth.

“So, you can what?” she asked. And even her mech looked upset, which was even smoother. How the hell did he fuck it up this much?

“So, I can feel something,” he answered finally. “But that’s not important. If you’re not from here, and I’m not from here, why are we here? And where is here?”

“From what I’ve managed to gather, which isn’t much, admittedly, the technology here is all so…old,” she griped, “it doesn’t connect well with my SP//dr. But I do know there is a Spider-Man! I was in the middle of seeing if I could track him when I felt…well, I felt like there was someone I had to see around.” She ducked her head slightly. “I had thought at first that it might be him, since…well, I thought he’d be the only one from here. But I’m okay with finding you!” She grinned, a bright and happy expression. “I’m just…glad to not be alone.”

Peter nodded and kept his eyes focused on the little girl before him, watching as she shrunk slightly at the admission, her foot gently circling the metal floor of her pod. He idly wondered if she could stick to walls on her own, or if she was simply at the mercy of the robot’s abilities. The idea frightened him in an idle sort of way. Being that dependent on anything, even a mech that had a link with him, was not something he had any desire for.

He also had no idea how to answer her admission. He saw the moment that she realized this, an odd…flush spreading across her cheeks, but he couldn’t think of anything to say to make it better. Peter internally cursed his lack of people-skills and wondered how many ways he could kick his own ass.

“We…we need somewhere to stay!” she finally called out, regrouping remarkably well in the face of Peter’s own inability. “Maybe we can find the Spider-Man of this reality. I bet they’ll be able to help us! They might even know how we got here.”

“Knowing the Spider luck, he’ll probably be right in the middle of it.”

The gripe got a brief laugh from Peni, and Peter smirked to himself proudly.

“Alright, so we have to find Spider-Man. Do you have any ideas?” Peni asked. “I can connect to another mainframe and try and hack in, but…I kind of stand out.” She paused. “You definitely stand out. I don’t think they’d notice me if I just walked up to somewhere, but you…” She didn’t say anything else, and she didn’t have to. Peter hesitated, standing up and looking out at the city before them, thinking.

“You’re a Parker, right? Peni Parker?”

“Yes,” Peni responded, beaming. “And you’re a Parker, too! A Peter Parker.” She frowned slightly. “Do you think that there’s a Parker here that’s running around as a Spider-Man?”

“I don’t doubt that in the least. Two spider-people pulled out of alternate dimensions and brought to another universe with a Spider, both named Parker? Once I’d call coincidence, but this feels too focused.”

“I think so, too!” She grinned. “Alright! I’ve got something to look for now, this will make things so much easier!” Peni hunkered back into the torso of her robot, which closed before her. “Come on!” she called out, and Peter watched as she leapt to another building, the leap something that made his entire body flinch backward as he followed her movement with his eyes and simultaneously took a better look at his surroundings. It hurt, and he found himself covering his eyes, ducking down.

It took a second before Peni seemed to realize he wasn’t behind her. He felt it when she landed before him, the hatch opening again, and he forced himself to open his eyes. Her wide and worried eyes stared at him, and Peter forced himself to straighten.

“I’m sorry,” he managed softly, “I…it hurts,” he finally admitted. “I don’t know what I’m seeing, and it really…it just hurts my head.”

“All the colors are really freaking you out, huh?” she asked him, but before Peter could ask what she meant, her robot reached out. “Don’t worry! I’ll help you out, just hold still.” Peter found himself grabbed, before being positioned in such a way that he could cling to the back of her robot. He hunkered down against it, holding his hat with one hand, a terrible mixture of shame and disgust welling up within him.

Pathetic.

“I’ll just carry you! We’ll get there soon, just try and get your eyes to adjust, okay? I know you can do it!” She cheered, the face of the robot staring at him with a bright smile blinking across its ‘face’, which was odd. Peter resigned himself to being carried and felt as she adjusted herself to his weight, and then leapt.

For a moment they were in free-fall, and then her robot thwiped its wrist out, webbing shooting out and swinging them up and out. It was a familiar experience, even without the control he usually enjoyed. It also allowed him to get used to the sight of the world zipping by him, the…colors blurring together as they swung.

He had to get used to this. He had to be useful.

Peter forced his eyes to stay open and trusted in Peni to get them where they needed to go in order to gain information. They would figure out what was going on, and then they would figure out how to get home, Peter was certain. This was just another strange pothole in the road he called life. He’d been hitting them so often they were almost expected by this point.

What else could happen?

#burning matches #into the spiderverse #spiderverse #spider-noir #peni parker #peter benjamin parker #spider-man #spiderverse fanfic #i don't care who you are #suddenly having bright colors like that would be insane #like CLEARLY he can see color given the way he reacts to the cube #there's some interesting implications in terms of like #did spider-noir's universe have color before and it doesn't now #what's the deal with that #how can his eyes see color if he's in black and white?#it's neat!#either way #here we go

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