30: Chapter 30 Nemesis 1

New Year's Eve.

Peter felt he should be holding Felicia, swinging between the buildings of New York, overlooking the city in a way only they could understand. He should be officially taking her to meet Aunt May and Uncle Ben; after all, their relationship had finally reached that point. He even should have gone to meet her mother—if her mom was at home.

There were many things he should have been doing.

But at this moment, he was sitting in Reed's laboratory, listening to the faint sounds of fireworks in the distance outside the window.

"I hate all of you." Peter crossed his arms, his tone gloomy.

"Oh, don't be like that, Peter," Johnny Storm winked, "would you rather stay here, or go out and freeze your ass off?"

"I would rather be spending a wonderful night with my girlfriend," Peter gritted his teeth, "instead of sitting around in Reed's laboratory!"

"You aren't just sitting around," Reed didn't even look up, staring at the dense calculation data in front of him, "you are waiting for me to show you something super important."

"Right, right, right," Peter rolled his eyes, "almost forgot. By the way, you still haven't told us what that thing is!"

"Patience is also a virtue." Reed grinned.

Sue blinked her eyes, her tone innocent and naive: "Peter, do you think I'm not pretty?"

"I didn't say that, I just said you're too old for me," Peter laughed, "I'm only fifteen, still three years away from being legal."

She chuckled: "But seriously Peter, when are you going to bring that girl you're always talking about to meet us? Her name is Felicia, right? You really should bring her over."

Peter shrugged: "Yeah, maybe. I have to make sure she's adapted to this superhero stuff first. She looks fine on the surface, but I know she's still a bit panicked inside."

"Wait, what?! You told her you're Spider-Man?!" Johnny Storm exploded on the spot, "Bro! Are you crazy?!"

Peter shrugged: "What's wrong with that? I like her, so I told her. Besides, it would be weird to keep such a big thing from her while dating."

"This... you really are mature, Peter," Reed looked up from behind the lab bench, "very thoughtful."

"Thanks." Peter laughed.

"Do you have a photo?" Ben suddenly spoke up.

"Oh, yeah." Peter took out a holographic display screen and lit it up; on it was a photo of him and Felicia at the entrance of the cinema on their first date, "Ta-da."

"Holy shit!" Johnny Storm whistled, "Bro! How the hell did you manage to get someone of this level?!"

Peter smiled smugly: "Simple, just be as excellent and handsome as me."

"She is indeed very beautiful," Reed nodded, and sensing Sue's gaze, he quickly added, "Congratulations, Peter."

"Treat her well, kid, girls like that are hard to come by." Ben's voice was uncharacteristically deep, not knowing if it was from experience or just a random remark.

"No, seriously Peter, how did you do it? How the hell did you get someone of this level?" Johnny Storm wouldn't let it go, "I'm a damn superhero, and you're just a skinny kid!"

Peter spread his hands: "A skinny kid with a charming smile."

"Oh, cut it out!"

"I don't think so, he is actually quite charming." Sue winked at Peter.

Peter's face turned red instantly: "Uh, uh, th-thanks?"

"Got it! Pay up, Reed!" Sue laughed like a triumphant cat.

"What? Damn it, Peter, you," Reed howled, pulling ten dollars out of his pocket and slapping it onto Sue's open palm, "can't you not be so shy?!"

"Were you guys betting on whether she could make me blush?" Peter couldn't believe it.

"Ah, no, that's not important; what's important is that I'm ready!" Reed strode away from the machine he had built in the center of the laboratory.

It was a huge door frame, like an archway made of three stone slabs. The other side was closed off, but looking at the dense systems and mechanical devices on the door frame, this was clearly no ordinary door.

"Didn't expect to see this thing again." Johnny Storm sighed.

"Who would have thought, kid." Ben's voice was low.

Everyone's eyes landed on that machine.

"Um, the only person on the team who doesn't know what's going on is here, can someone explain it to me?" Peter raised his hand.

"This is a variation of the dimensional teleporter that gave us our powers," Reed explained, "I've adjusted the parameters, so we can't actually pass through it, only observe the World on the other side."

"Okay... so the reason you made this thing is...?" Peter asked curiously.

"Our powers come from another dimension," Reed said, "but without studying that dimension, I can't figure out what exactly happened to us."

Peter whistled: "Then what are we waiting for? Turn it on!"

Reed nodded, walked to the console, and tapped the keyboard. A purple light screen appeared in the door frame, and the image gradually took shape.

It was a dead, desolate World, with no reason to exist. The sky was dark, filled with exploding supernovae and terrifyingly close planets. It looked like a dying Universe, and to some extent, it really was.

"Holy shit, you guys went into this place?" Peter's voice trembled, "This, this damn,"

"That's what I thought too," Ben said in a muffled voice, "that was not a good place."

"Wait, is this where we landed back then?" Johnny Storm narrowed his eyes.

"Yes, I think so," Sue's eyes widened in surprise, "Look, Johnny Storm! That's your footprint!"

She pointed at the screen, there was indeed a human footprint on the wasteland. A human footprint in another dimension. This is fucking crazy.

Peter slowly took a step back. He didn't want to be so close to a door that could drop him into an alien World and never let him back. If he tripped, he'd be trapped inside forever.

"Peter, are you okay?" Reed asked.

"I'm fine, just... don't want to take that risk, you know," Peter swallowed, "I might accidentally get trapped in another World."

"Relax, Reed said it's fine, you won't accidentally walk into another dimension, Peter." Johnny Storm waved his hand.

"Strictly speaking, I said I blocked the channel to that dimension, but we can still receive things from there, of course not physical entities, just discrete energy forms." Reed corrected.

"Right, right." Peter swallowed again.

"Alright, let's start, I'll calibrate the machine to detect any energy signals coming through the portal, Johnny Storm, you take that,"

The alarm suddenly blared.

The entire building went into alert mode.

"What's going on?!" Peter asked.

"The scanner detected something rushing towards us!" Sue rushed to a monitor and typed rapidly.

"What?! What is rushing towards us?!" Johnny Storm asked.