New Year's Eve.
Peter thought he should have been swinging between New York's buildings with Felicia in his arms, looking down over the city in a way only the two of them understood. He should have formally taken her to meet Aunt May and Uncle Ben, since their relationship had finally reached that point. He should even have gone to meet her mother-if her mom was home.
There were a lot of things he should have been doing.
But at that moment, he was sitting in Reed's lab, listening to the faint sound of distant fireworks outside the window.
"I hate all of you." Peter folded his arms, his tone gloomy.
"Oh, come on, Peter," Johnny said, waggling his eyebrows. "Would you rather stay here or go out and freeze your ass off?"
"I'd rather spend a wonderful evening with my girlfriend," Peter said through gritted teeth, "instead of sitting around in Reed's lab!"
"You're not just sitting around." Reed didn't look up, his eyes fixed on the dense calculations in front of him. "You're waiting for me to show you something super important."
"Right, right, right." Peter rolled his eyes. "Almost forgot. Speaking of which, you still haven't told us what it is!"
"Patience is a virtue." Reed grinned.
Sue blinked, her tone innocent. "Peter, do you think I'm not pretty?"
"I never said that. I just said you're too old for me." Peter smiled. "I'm only fifteen. I've still got three years before I'm legal."
She burst out laughing. "But seriously, Peter, when are you bringing that girl you're always talking about over to meet us? Felicia, right? You really should bring her over sometime."
Peter shrugged. "Yeah, maybe. I need to make sure she's adjusted to this whole superhero thing first. She seems okay on the surface, but I know she's still a little freaked out inside."
"Wait, what?! You told her you're Spider-Man?!" Johnny immediately flipped out. "Dude! Are you insane?!"
Peter shrugged. "What's wrong with that? I like her, so I told her. Besides, it'd be weird to keep dating her while hiding something that big."
"That's... really mature of you, Peter." Reed looked up from behind the lab bench. "Very considerate."
"Thanks." Peter smiled.
"Got a picture?" Ben suddenly asked.
"Oh, yeah." Peter took out a holographic display and switched it on. It showed a picture of him and Felicia outside the movie theater on their first date. "Ta-da."
"Holy shit!" Johnny whistled. "Dude! How the fuck did you land someone that hot?!"
Peter smiled smugly. "Easy. Be as amazing and handsome as me."
"She really is beautiful." Reed nodded, then felt Sue's gaze on him and hurriedly added, "Congratulations, Peter."
"Treat her right, kid. You don't find a girl like that every day." Ben's voice was unusually low; whether he was speaking from experience or just making an offhand remark was unclear.
"No, seriously, Peter, how'd you do it? How did you land someone that hot?" Johnny wouldn't let it go. "I'm a fucking superhero, and you're just some scrawny little brat!"
Peter spread his hands. "A scrawny little brat with a charming smile."
"Oh, give me a break!"
"I don't think so. He really is pretty charming." Sue winked at Peter.
Peter's face went bright red. "Uh, uh, th-thank you?"
"Got him! Pay up, Reed!" Sue smiled like a cat that had gotten its way.
"What? Fuck, Peter, you-" Reed groaned, pulled ten dollars out of his pocket, and slapped it into Sue's open palm. "Couldn't you be a little less shy?!"
"Were you betting on whether she could make me blush?" Peter asked incredulously.
"Ah, no, that's not important. What's important is that I'm ready!" Reed strode away from the machine he'd built in the middle of the lab.
It was an enormous doorframe, like an arch made from three stone slabs. The other side was sealed, but judging by the densely packed systems and machinery on the frame, this was clearly no ordinary door.
"Never thought I'd see this thing again." Johnny sighed.
"You can say that again, kid." Ben's voice was low.
Everyone's gaze settled on the machine.
"Uh, the only person on the team who doesn't know what's going on is right here. Could someone explain?" Peter raised his hand.
"This is a variant of the dimensional transporter that originally gave us our powers," Reed explained. "I've adjusted the parameters, so we can't actually pass through. We can only observe the world on the other side."
"Okay... so your reason for making this thing was...?" Peter asked curiously.
"Our powers came from another dimension," Reed said. "But unless I study that dimension, I can't figure out exactly what happened to us."
Peter whistled. "Then what are we waiting for? Fire it up!"
Reed nodded, walked over to the console, and typed on the keyboard. A purple curtain of light appeared within the doorframe, and an image gradually took shape.
It was a deathly silent, barren world that had no reason to exist. The sky was dark, filled with exploding supernovas and terrifyingly close planets. It looked like a dying universe, and in a way, that was exactly what it was.
"Holy shit, you guys went in there?" Peter's voice trembled a little. "That's, that's fucking..."
"My thoughts exactly," Ben said in a muffled voice. "That wasn't a nice place."
"Wait, is this where we landed back then?" Johnny narrowed his eyes.
"Yes, I think so." Sue's eyes widened in surprise. "Look, Johnny! That's your footprint!"
She pointed at the screen. There really was a human footprint in the barren soil. A human footprint in another dimension. That was fucking insane.
Peter slowly took a step back. He didn't want to be so close to a door that could drop him into another world with no way back. If he tripped, he'd be trapped in there forever.
"Peter, are you okay?" Reed asked.
"I'm fine, just... don't want to take the risk, you know." Peter swallowed. "One wrong move and I'd be trapped in another world for the rest of my life."
"Relax. Reed said it's fine. You're not going to accidentally walk into another dimension, Peter." Johnny waved a hand.
"Strictly speaking, what I said was that I blocked the passage to that dimension, but we can still receive things from that side. Nothing physical, of course, just discrete forms of energy," Reed corrected.
"Right, right." Peter swallowed again.
"All right, let's get started. I'll calibrate the machine to detect any energy signals coming through the portal. Johnny, take that-"
An alarm suddenly blared.
The entire building went into alert mode.
"What's going on?!" Peter asked.
"The scanner's detected something rushing toward us!" Sue dashed over to a monitor and typed rapidly.
"What?! What's rushing toward us?!" Johnny asked.