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Spider-Man Lore

Unfriendly Neighborhood

Every week or so, Peter Parker swung uptown from his usual haunts to the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge, looking across toward home. And every week, there was no way to get there. Too many vampires patrolling the bridge, and other horrific flying monsters over it. Dracula had Manhattan all to himself, and he wasn't letting any of his human "playthings" escape.

Still Peter came by to look, wishing he could talk to Aunt May. Every Wednesday. That's when he missed Aunt May the most, because ever since he'd moved out of her house, he'd always tried to get back to see her for lunch on Wednesdays.

Today, he was staying a little farther away from the bridge, watching it from the Midtown Tunnel's ventilation tower, a mile downstream past the UN headquarters. It was a quiet place for contemplation, since the huge fans were no longer running. He had cased the area for vampires before letting himself have his weekly moment of regret and longing, for a world before the Timestream Entanglement, before the vampires had taken over New York, before he had lost track of the days since he'd seen the sun. Gazing at the bridge under the dead eye of Dracula's moon, lost in thought, Peter was thinking about two things at once. One, he was frustrated about not being able to help out with the construction of the Timestream Reintegration Device, which everyone was calling the TRD except Tony Stark, who of course had built an AI interface for it called Trudy.

Two, he was remembering when he had been here the week before, about the same time — although it was hard to know what time it was when the sun never came up and the moon always hung full over the river. He'd been wishing he could see Aunt May, just like tonight, when he noticed a twinkling in the air, just in front of him. It got a little brighter, and a folded piece of paper appeared out of nowhere, pinched between two fingers. The hand disappeared and the piece of paper drifted down to rest on Peter's right knee.

Huh, he thought. That didn't happen every day.

He unfolded the paper and read.

Peter,

The Master Weaver told me to find you and tell you that the Web of Life and Destiny needs you. I will reach out again when it is time for you to come here. That time will be soon.

Spider-Zero

Spider-Zero? Master Weaver? Peter had never heard of either, nor did he have any idea what the Web of Life and Destiny might be. But he found out the next day — well, the next night, when a portal popped open next to him while he was patrolling the East Village. A young woman was on the other side. She said his name.

"That would make you Spider-Zero, I guess?" Peter said. "Do you have an actual person name?"

She ignored his question. "We need you, Peter. The Web of Life and Destiny needs you."

"I don't — I belong here."

"Let me show you."

He hadn't wanted to go through the portal. Something told him it would be hard to get back, for any number of possible reasons, and he couldn't take the chance. So Spider-Zero showed him the Web of Life and Destiny through the portal. The night sky beyond it blazed with portals and stars. The city below it — so, so far below it — was a dark splendor of neon-lit towers and shadow, extending to the horizon in every direction.

"See, Peter? This is your destiny. If the Web fails, all Spider-People will disappear. Including you. And not too long after that, reality comes apart. The Web is what holds it all together."

He'd had to say no. "If you ever need me, you know where to find me," he said. "I'll come and help, but New York is my home. I belong here."

She hadn't pressed him, but she did say she would be coming back. And Peter hadn't been able to get the vision of the Web out of his head since then.

Now, sitting and watching the bridge, Peter was thinking that the Web was like the model of the universe Tony talked about, with dimensions wrapped up in tight strings that vibrated through space-time and intersected...well, like a web. Peter knew a little about string theory, but the way Tony talked about space-time when he and Reed were working out the math for the TRD? That was just a bit beyond Peter's reach. He could see what it was the way you could see what Arthur Douglas was doing on the saxophone. Doing it yourself was another level. Peter was a bit crestfallen at having to admit this to himself, but hey, at least he still had streets to patrol and citizens to save from vampires and other creatures of the night.

Could be worse.

On the other hand, if he'd gone to that futuristic Tokyo, maybe touching the Web would have somehow put him in touch with the true nature of the universe, helped him find some insight into the model Tony was trying to construct...

No. He was right where he belonged. Or, he amended as he looked at the bridge, at least he was close to where he belonged.

As he had that thought, Peter felt his ears pop. He looked to his left and there were Cloak and Dagger.

"Hi guys," Peter said.

"Thought we might find you here," Dagger said.

"Well, it is Wednesday," Peter said.

Cloak watched the area for any vampires. "Glad you didn't go to Tokyo."

"Yeah," Dagger agreed. "We need you here. The resistance against Dracula can't spare anyone." Spider-Man knew it. There weren't many of them in the underground that fought back against vampires. The three of them, Squirrel Girl of course...that was the core group. The Winter Soldier used to help out, but most of the Avengers were holed up in Tony's tower fighting off Doombots and trying to undo whatever Doctor Doom had done. Same with the Fantastic Four. So, the day-to-day battle in the streets to save ordinary citizens and try to break the vampire stranglehold on the city was left to the five of them, and the citizens themselves. Well, he should say night-to-night, because the sun hadn't shone on Manhattan in weeks.

"Speaking of finding you," Dagger went on, "we're getting a little worried."

Cloak picked up where she left off. "Don't want to be a downer, but you're here most Wednesdays. If you get predictable, Dracula's gonna figure it out. He'll be watching for you."

One of the vampires always patrolling the UN headquarters looked up and saw them. Peter pointed it out. "You mean they already know, right?"

"I was kinda trying to ease you into it," Cloak said.

The lead vampire gave a hoarse cry as the horde appeared. Leaping ten yards at a time, they reached the basketball courts at the base of the tower and began to climb.

"We can handle this," Dagger said. Daggers of light appeared in both of her hands, and Cloak spread his cloak wide. From experience, they'd learned that vampires did not do well in the Darkforce dimension. Peter looked around automatically, noting anchor points for web. Sometimes in situations like this, he wished he had a weapon, but that wasn't his style.

More vampires appeared along the rooflines of nearby buildings. All of them were the lower, semi-sentient type, the quick creations of Dracula and other vampires. Good for instilling fear among regular people, but they'd taken down a few Super Heroes too. There were at least six of them climbing up the tower. "Peter," Dagger said quietly. He saw her glance up toward the roofs. "There are too many. This was a setup."

It sure felt that way. But who had set them up?

Right now, with a half-dozen vampires almost close enough to touch and a ton of others ready to drop on them from the rooftops, it didn't matter. What mattered was staying alive.

Perfectly synchronized, the vampires swung up onto the top of the ventilation tower. But Spider-Man, Cloak, and Dagger had gotten pretty well synchronized too, tag-teaming in and out as they swung into action. Dagger's twin blades of light streaked out, and two vampires toppled screeching back off the tower. Cloak popped out, sweeping the fabric of his cloak out to swallow two others. Spider-Man swept the legs out from under the fifth and popped up to punch the sixth off the edge of the roof. When he turned back to the fifth, it had already been swallowed and teleported who knows where.

Now, vampires were leaping and crawling down from the surrounding rooftops. Too many to fight. They were all going to be trapped if they didn't get out of there. Cloak held his cloak open for Dagger. She glanced back at Peter. "Want a ride?"

"No thanks," Peter said. He'd been through the Darkforce dimension a couple of times and he would rather try to outrun the vampires. "I got this."

She waved and disappeared inside Cloak. "Be safe," Cloak said, and then he too was gone. The wash of Darkforce energy gave Peter a momentary feeling like he was in a falling elevator.

When it passed, the dog park at the base of the tower was swarming with vampires. More spilled out of the First Avenue tunnel, or out of the Tudor City apartment building across the avenue. Spider-Man was pretty good in a fight, but he didn't like his chances against two dozen vampires. It was time to swing out of there, live to fight another day.

Thwip! He shot a line of webbing across 42nd Street, exactly where he'd wanted it — within six feet of the roofline. Everything was going to work out.

Then, as he tensed for the jump, a vampire tore out the screen on top of the ventilation shaft and seized both of Peter's ankles. It pulled backwards, letting itself fall into the shaft, and Peter fell with it.

He held onto his webbing with one hand and aimed the other downward as the vampire bared its fangs to bite into his leg. He cocooned its head in webbing, but he was swinging back and forth so violently that he also managed to stick its hands to his ankles. Below them were the fans.

The line of webbing from the top of the building, which had been sawing against the sharp metal edge of the ventilation shaft screen, snapped. Spider-Man and the vampire fell, crashing down onto one of the fan blades. It snapped and they fell deeper, into a narrower part of the shaft, where they splashed into deep, cold water in nearly perfect darkness. Peter clung to the wall. He could feel the vampire thrashing under the water. They didn't breathe, so he didn't think it would drown. He did know that the water would dissolve his webbing faster than the air, so he pulled it up, and with the last of his webbing stuck it to the wall just above the waterline. Its eyes glowed red in the darkness, visible even through the webbing wrapping its face. The noises coming from inside the webbing were something out of a nightmare.

The whole situation was something out of a nightmare. Trapped in a flooded ventilation shaft, literally attached to a vampire that would bite him the minute his webbing dissolved from its face. He could see its jaws working, trying to chew through. Dracula's lower-level minions were not your sophisticated Bela Lugosi-style vampires. They were all appetite and hate. Spider-Man really didn't want to be in the same room with it when it got loose, but he didn't have any way to fight it. Already the light coming from its eyes seemed brighter. Pretty soon it would rip its way out of the webbing, and then it would rip its way into Peter.

Mind racing, Peter tried to figure a way out. He came up empty. He was just settling on a plan to climb back up the shaft, dragging the vampire with him, and hope the bonds around his ankles came loose before the vampire could get its mouth open — desperate, maybe, but not impossible — when he heard sounds from the top of the ventilation shaft.

There were more vampires on the roof.

There were other times in his life when Peter thought he might be about to die. It was part of the life of a Super Hero. But right now, it seemed pretty certain, and the pit of his stomach was colder than the water below his feet.

The vampire started to thrash its head around. The webbing on its face was beginning to fray. Its eyes were clear, staring through holes in the webbing. He could feel its hands flexing around his ankles. Above, Peter could hear the snarls of other vampires trying to descend the shaft.

A series of heavy bangs echoed down the shaft, and a vampire plunged into the water head-first. Peter froze, trying to gauge where it would come up...but it didn't come up. Where there had been snarling and chaos up at the top of the shaft, now there was silence.

Then the slow, laborious sound of feet scraping down the inside of the shaft. Bats began fluttering down the shaft, their wings occasionally brushing Peter's face.

This is it, Peter thought. The vampire stuck to his ankles was nearly free. He could feel it flexing its wrists, and he could see parts of its fangs through the thinning webbing that still covered the lower part of its face. Luckily it still couldn't open its mouth, but it wouldn't be long.

Peter watched as a figure in a long black coat hung from the underside of the fan. He couldn't quite see its face. Then it spoke. "Huh. Wouldn't have figured on finding you down here, Spider-Man."

Peter knew that voice, but he couldn't quite believe he was hearing it. "Morbius?"

"In the living vampire flesh." Morbius surveyed Peter's predicament. "You're in a tight spot. Good thing I came along."

"Why, you want to finish me off yourself? Bring me as a trophy to Dracula?"

"Are you kidding? Vampires scorn and despise regular people like you, but they hate me. Like, really hate me." Morbius did something Peter couldn't see, and the vampire attached to Peter's ankles went limp. "How long until the webbing dissolves?"

"In cold water? Not very much longer. But if you have a jackknife, we could move things along."

Morbius extended a claw from his hand, swiping away at the web, cutting Peter free. They climbed back out of the shaft and on the rooftop where lay seven vampires strewn in different violent poses. "How did you do that?" Peter asked.

Morbius grinned without humor. "To the lesser creations, I just look like another bat. Wouldn't fool Dracula, but these things?" He nudged one of them with his foot. "They're not the smartest tools in the shed."

Peter started to put two and two together, and he was reaching a conclusion he couldn't quite believe. But he had to ask. "Did you...did you know I was going to be here?"

"I've been watching you. And I've been watching some of the vampires watching you. You ought to be more careful on Wednesdays." Morbius looked around the area. "In fact, we probably shouldn't stay here."

"We?"

"Spider-Man, I came looking for you because we need to work together," Morbius said. "I've been skulking around Manhattan by myself, but sooner or later Dracula's going to get me. Same with you, only I know you've got some friends. I could use some friends, and our chance of surviving is better if we band together."

Peter considered this. Morbius was probably right, but it felt a little weird to be relying on a vampire — even a scientifically created one — in a battle against Dracula.

"Also, I think I know a way to get into Dracula's castle," Morbius added.

"You do?" Peter thought harder. He made a decision. Let Tony handle the TRD. He would stick to the moonlit streets and take the fight straight to Dracula. Morbius would be a definite asset on that front. On the other hand...

"This is going to be a tricky conversation with you know who," he said.

Morbius laughed. Peter couldn't help smiling too.