Peter didn't plan to go far.
Just a few swings to clear his head—over the rooftops of Astoria, past the skeletal frame of the Hell Gate Bridge, then looping back toward Flushing Meadows. The afternoon sun hung low and forgiving, painting long shadows across the park's empty soccer fields. No sirens. No screams. Just wind in his ears and the rhythmic snap of web-lines.
He landed on the Unisphere—perched on one of the giant steel rings that encircled the world's continents like a cosmic hula hoop. The metal was still warm from the day's heat. He sat with legs dangling, mask lenses reflecting the globe's tarnished continents below.
For once, the city felt distant. Manageable.
The interface stayed quiet. Almost too quiet.
He tilted his head back, watching a single cloud drift across a perfect blue sky.
Then the static hit.
It started as a low buzz behind his eyes—not spider-sense, not pain, but interference. Like someone tuning an old radio and finding nothing but white noise. The noise sharpened into fragments: distorted voices overlapping, snippets of language he didn't recognize, then English, then something older than English.
Peter stiffened.
The world flickered.
Not the city—the edges of his vision. Colors bled for half a second. The Unisphere's continents seemed to pulse, as though breathing. Then reality snapped back.
The interface exploded into activity.
**[Anomaly Spike Detected]**
**[Resonance Frequency Match: Origin Vector Confirmed]**
**[Warning: Localized Dimensional Bleed – Containment Failure Imminent]**
**[Defensive Subroutine Activated]**
**[Emergency Protocol: Anchor Subject Reality Signature]**
Peter's heart slammed against his ribs.
"What the—"
The air around him thickened. Gravity felt wrong—too heavy one instant, weightless the next. A low hum vibrated through the steel beneath him, traveling up his spine.
He stood fast.
Across the park, near the abandoned carousel, the air shimmered like heat off pavement. A tear opened—small at first, no bigger than a doorway, edges crackling with violet static. Through it: not Queens. Not Earth.
A fractured cityscape. Towers of black glass that bent at impossible angles. Sky the color of bruised metal. Shapes moved in the distance—too fast, too many limbs.
Then the tear widened.
Something stepped through.
It wasn't large—barely taller than Peter—but it moved wrong. Joints bending in directions that made his stomach lurch. Skin (if it was skin) shifted between matte black and iridescent oil-slick. No face. Just a smooth oval where features should be, reflecting the park in distorted funhouse mirrors.
The thing tilted its head—exactly the way a curious insect might.
Peter's spider-sense screamed.
**[Entity Classification: Observer-Class Entity]**
**[Threat Level: Elevated – Adaptive Morphology Detected]**
**[Combat Recommendation: Evasion Priority High]**
Peter didn't need the prompt.
He shot a web-line toward the nearest tree line, yanking himself into motion.
The entity moved.
Not running—sliding. Its lower body dissolved into liquid shadow, reforming ten feet closer in a single blink. It raised one elongated arm. Fingers ended in needle points that glowed faintly violet.
Peter twisted mid-air, releasing the line and firing two impact webs at its center mass. The strands hit—then slid off like water on glass.
The entity cocked its head again.
A voice—not spoken, but felt—rolled through Peter's skull.
*"Catalyst. You resonate."*
Cold. Clinical. Curious.
Peter landed on a lamppost, crouched. "Yeah? Well, you're trespassing."
He fired another web—this time a wide net aimed to envelop. The entity simply stepped sideways—through the net, as though the strands occupied a different plane of existence.
It raised its arm again.
Violet light lanced out—not a beam, but a ripple. The air folded around it.
Peter dove left. The ripple struck the lamppost behind him. Metal screamed, then folded inward like paper, crumpling into a perfect sphere the size of a basketball.
Peter's stomach dropped.
**[Combat Analysis: Spatial Compression Weaponry]**
**[Countermeasure Unavailable at Current Integration Level]**
"Great," he muttered. "Really great."
He swung higher—up to the Unisphere again—trying to buy distance and time. The entity followed, gliding across the grass without touching it, leaving faint violet afterimages.
Peter's mind raced.
He couldn't outrun it. Couldn't web it. Couldn't punch it without risking whatever that folding trick did to flesh.
The interface pulsed urgently.
**[Emergency Override Available]**
**[Cost: 1 Skill Point (Unallocated)]**
**[Unlock: Adaptive Resonance Pulse – Temporary counter-harmonic emission to destabilize extradimensional anchor]**
**[Duration: 45 seconds]**
**[Risk: Temporary System instability]**
Peter didn't hesitate.
**Accept.**
A sharp jolt ran through his nerves—like touching a live wire, but inside his bones. The interface flared white, then dimmed.
**[Adaptive Resonance Pulse: Active]**
**[Emit now? Y/N]**
Peter focused.
A pulse erupted from his palms—not visible light, but a low-frequency thrum that made the air shiver. The entity froze mid-stride. Its reflective face fractured into static. Violet glow flickered erratically.
For forty-five glorious seconds, it was vulnerable.
Peter didn't waste them.
He launched forward, closing the distance in three swings. First punch connected—solid, right to where ribs should be. The entity staggered, body rippling like disturbed water. Second punch—uppercut to the featureless face. It recoiled, limbs flailing.
On the third swing he webbed both its arms, yanking them wide, then drove both feet into its chest.
The thing hit the ground hard—cracking concrete—then dissolved into liquid shadow and reformed five meters away.
But slower this time.
The pulse ended.
The entity straightened. The violet glow stabilized.
*"Interesting. Evolution in progress."*
It raised both arms.
The tear behind it widened further—now large enough for two people to walk through side by side. More shapes moved on the other side.
Peter's spider-sense went nuclear.
He needed backup.
He tapped the side of his mask—emergency comms frequency Stark had slipped him during the tower visit.
"Stark? Cap? Anyone? I've got company. Not friendly. Flushing Meadows, Unisphere. Extradimensional. Moving fast."
Static answered first.
Then Tony's voice—clipped, alert.
"On it. Quinjet ETA four minutes. Hold position if you can. Don't be a hero."
Peter laughed once—sharp, breathless. "Too late for that."
The entity advanced again.
Peter backed up, firing webs at the ground to create obstacles—thick mats, trip lines, anything to slow it. The thing ignored them, phasing through or absorbing.
He glanced at the tear.
If more came through…
He made a decision.
He shot a web-line straight up—maximum tension—then swung in a wide arc, building momentum. At the apex he released, rocketing toward the tear like a missile.
The entity reacted—violet ripple lancing out.
Peter twisted, barely dodging. The ripple grazed his leg—fabric and skin folded inward for a heartbeat. Pain exploded white-hot.
He screamed through clenched teeth.
But momentum carried him.
He slammed into the tear's edge shoulder-first.
Reality screamed.
For one endless second, he was in both places: Queens grass under one foot, black-glass city under the other. Cold wind from nowhere tore at his suit. Distant shapes turned toward him—dozens, hundreds.
Then he punched.
Not with fists.
With will.
The resonance pulse—leftover charge—flared again, unbidden.
The tear shuddered. Edges frayed. Violet static arced wildly.
The entity lunged—too late.
Peter yanked himself back through, collapsing the tear behind him with sheer desperate force.
The rift snapped shut.
Silence.
The entity stood frozen—half its body caught on the wrong side. It flickered once, then dissolved into wisps of shadow that drifted upward and vanished.
Peter hit the ground hard, rolling across grass.
Everything hurt.
His leg—where the ripple grazed—looked wrong. Skin puckered inward like a bad weld, blood welling dark. Healing factor already working, but slowly.
He lay there, chest heaving, staring at the sky.
The Unisphere loomed above, continents still spinning lazily on their axis.
A quinjet roar grew in the distance.
Peter closed his eyes for a second.
The interface reappeared—dim, flickering.
**[Anomaly Neutralized]**
**[Integration Progress: 52%]**
**[New Skill Unlocked: Adaptive Resonance Pulse (Level 1)]**
**[Cost Paid: 1 Skill Point]**
**[Warning: Dimensional Anchor Weakened. Further incursions probable.]**
**[New Quest: Secure the Breach]**
**Objective: Locate and seal residual weak points before full cascade failure.**
**Reward: Dimensional Stabilization Node, Major Upgrade Token**
Peter laughed—hoarse, pained.
"Of course there's more."
High above, the quinjet broke cloud cover—red and gold repulsors flaring.
Tony's voice crackled over comms again.
"Kid? Talk to me."
Peter raised one shaky hand in a thumbs-up.
"Still here," he rasped. "But… we've got work to do."
The jet descended fast.
And somewhere, in the space between realities, a patient watcher adjusted its calculations.
One thread had snapped.
But the web was far from finished.
To be continued...