XI. LAB RATS
"science was never my strong suit"

ISABELLA CERTAINLY DOES NOT EXPECT THE HUG from Peter, the youngest one that is, when the small group makes the way into the lab she's in. She's in shock for a few moments, before she returns the gesture and wraps her arms around him.

"How are you feeling?" Isabella asks softly when he pulls away, her hands on his shoulders as she looks into his eyes.

"I'm okay for now. I just need to do this, for May," Peter replies, a weak smile appearing on his face. "And, I'm sorry I left you at the building. When you didn't show up, I thought–"

"I'm fine, Peter. Absolutely fine,"

They're quick to get to work on the antidotes for the villains, each of them working on something different. Isabella gently flicks her fingers about as her hands shake, that overwhelmed feeling hitting her again. It's been a huge couple of days and it's finally taking a toll.

She can feel eyes on her as the golden mist-like magic swirls in the palm of her hand, a soft smile on her lips. There isn't much else she can really do at the moment, Isabella has never been good at science – it was probably one of her weakest subjects. It's strange because Gwen had been so good at it and even when she went into a detailed explanation, Isabella never understood.

"Is that natural?"

Isabella looks at the oldest version of Peter Parker and shakes her head lightly. "I was a science experiment,"

"I've never seen anything like that before,"

"That's probably a good thing. That Doctor Otto guy has caused enough trouble in your world already I'd imagine,"

"Yeah,"

This Peter has had his own run ins with Doctor Otto Octavius and those weird mechanical arms he has. That must also mean the sandman is from his world too, he seems a little less deranged on first glance but who knows. And Norman, Norman Osborn who had killed May, he was from his world too.

None of these villains are from the youngest Peter's world, this universe. She can only assume that there has been some weird people he's faced over the years, including Mysterio who she had seen on the screen that day. The constant replays of him outing Peter as Spider-Man, destroying a kid's life for his own gain – sounds like the man who did this to her except none of this is on Peter, she was partly to blame for her own spiral.

"So did you have a best friend too?" Ned is now questioning the oldest of the three as he tries to focus on his cure.

"I did. He died in my arms after he tried to kill me. Heartbreaking," The man replies and shock washes over Ned's face.

"Morbid," Isabella mumbles as she gets to her feet, admittedly getting slightly antsy.

Ned moves to his best friend as the brunette takes his seat, sitting between the two alternate Peters. Looking to her right, she smiles softly as she watches him in his lab coat which she'd seen him in many times before back home.

"How's May?" Isabella asks him, gaining his attention.

"She's good. A little older than you remember but she's good," Peter responds, his lips twitching up slightly.

"That's good. A-and my mum?"

On their own accord, tears fill up her eyes. She could only imagine how much heartbreak her mother has faced over the years since she's been gone. Losing so many members of your family has to take a toll, it just has to.

"She's getting better. Last I spoke to her, she was doing some volunteer work. I heard she even took up being a foster parent," Peter is now entirely facing her now, as if his gaze will be enough to assure her.

Her lips wobble slightly as she nods her head, relief flooding through her entire body. The girl doesn't seem to notice that his eyes have moved elsewhere, watching the table beside them as it moves about a little. The items scattered all over it are also rattling slightly.

"D-does she know how I died? The things I did?"

The rattling intensifies just after the words spill from her mouth, that overwhelming feeling rising up once again. Peter doesn't saying a thing for a few moments and she knows that he's just trying to find a way to break it to her — that her own mother thought she was a monster.

MONSTER.

It's a word that she has been plagued with, one that she thinks is very descriptive of her. She'd hurt people, she literally threw Peter off a building when she wasn't even one hundred percent certain he was Spider-Man — he could've died. She could've killed him and she wouldn't have had a second thought about it.

"Bella, you need to calm down," Peter warns gently, placing his hands on her shoulders as more things begin to shake around them. "Hey, hey,"

It doesn't help though, tears now flowing from her eyes as the magic in her body runs haywire. She'd been so caught up with seeing the man again that she hadn't reacted like this when he came back, but now it's all rushing at her in droves.

Clutching the sides of her head, she scrambles to her feet and mutters some words to herself as she desperately tries to calm down. Peter, the oldest one, manages to react quick enough when one of the beakers goes flying at him, throwing his hand up and catching it. The other that was just sitting beside her isn't so lucky, one of the books smacking him in the shoulder.

The other three in the room are now well aware that something is happening, moving over to them. MJ tries to go to her but Peter shakes his head slightly, knowing the girl would never forgive herself if she hurt someone.

The light above her head flickers uncontrollably as tries to breathe deeply, taking strong inhales and exhaling just as much. Slowly, her heartbeat seems to slow and one large blast of magic flows through the room, taking out nothing but a bunch of beakers and test tubes along the windows.

"I-I–" Isabella stutters softly, unsure of what to say. The Peter who she knows so well, comes over and wraps his arms around her. He nods at the others to let them know he has it before they return to their work.

"It's okay, Bee. I know this must be pretty overwhelming of you. Your mother knows what you did but that didn't stop her from loving you. I went to your house, your paintings are all over the walls. She hasn't touched your room," Peter assures.

Her breathing has calmed down, so she allows herself to pull away and takes the seat again. He sits beside her, working on his cure but keeping an eye on her as well.

A blank piece of paper before her draws in her attention and she slides it over, grabbing one of the spare pens that are laying around. Looking up, she spots Peter and MJ talking to one another, foreheads touching. Her hands starts moving before she can stop, sketching the image in front of her.

"You have someone?"

Isabella sucks in a breath, noticing that Peter had been looking too. There is absolutely no doubt in her mind that he's thinking about Gwen.

"No. I got no time for uh Peter Parker stuff, y'know? Do you?"

"Um, that's a little complicated,"

No, I understand. I guess it's just not in the cards for guys like us,"

"I wouldn't give up. It took a while, but we made it work,"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, me and MJ,"

This multiverse stuff is mind blowing, it's insane that his girlfriend goes by the same nickname as Michelle. Isabella cannot help but wonder if this world has a Gwen Stacy walking about somewhere — or maybe there is another where she is with a different Peter. Who knows?

When Ned says their name all of a sudden, all three Peters look over to him. The fact that all of them point to each other in utter confusion amuses her slightly, knowing that he obviously meant his best friend. It would make the most sense anyway.

"Uh Peter-Peter?" Ned tries again.

"We're all called Peter, Ned,"

"Peter Parker?"

"We're all Peter Parker,"

"The computer!" He's exasperated at this point.

Isabella sits there silently, allowing the pen to scratch against the surface of the paper. The image is coming together, it isn't so bad for somebody who hasn't drawn in years.

"So are you gonna go into battle dressed as a cool youth pastor, or do you have your suit?"

Isabella looks up and scrunches her eyebrows together. "Peter!"

The man in question shrugs with a smile, holding his hands up defensively.

The oldest of the three pulls his shirt collar down so that everybody can see the Spider-Man suit underneath. Once again it slightly differs from the other two, a way of reminding her that they aren't 'exactly' the same.

"Here's your web cartridges," Ned speaks to his best friend as the magic brunette finally joins them.

"What's that for?"

Isabella notices the way the other Peter is watching on in utter confusion, eyeing the web-shooters as if he's never seen anything like that before.

"It's my web fluid. It's for my web shooters. Why?"

Isabella's eyes widen in, well she doesn't know whether it's amazement or disgust, as the man shoots a web out of his wrist. This guy is like a literal spider.

"That came out of you," Ned says in wonder.

"Yeah. You can't do that, huh?" He's talking to the youngest Peter who shakes his head. The middle Peter is looking exactly the same, amazed by the fact he doesn't have to use shooters like him.

"Anyway, we're getting sidetracked. Look, this is where we're gonna do this, okay? It's isolated, so no one should get hurt. We draw them there with the box, it's the one thing they all want. All we have to do is figure out how we're gonna get there,"

Isabella is about to offer, knowing she should be able to get them there with her magic, when Ned speaks first.

"Oh, we can portal there. I'm magic now,"

"He's right. He can. He can,"

"Yeah, we saw him,"

"Yeah. He is,"

"It's true,"

The other four seem to pipe up in unison and Peter looks shocked. "Wait, really?"

"Dude, I got Doctor Strange magic. And I promise you, I won't turn into a supervillain and try to kill you,"

A soft laugh falls from Isabella as she shakes her head.

"Thank you? Alright. Here goes nothing. What's that thing you always say? If you expect disappointment—"

"No. We're gonna kick some ass," MJ says.

"Cure. Cure some ass," the oldest Spider-Man interjects before they set their plan into motion.

NOTE!
Thank you for reading!!