And everything was falling perfectly into place. With the presence of Otto, they finally managed to wrestle that giant staff out of the Spider-Monkey’s hand. It dropped the staff, which meant now it was Spider-Man’s time to shine. He immediately scooped up the giant staff just as it hit the ground. “I’ll be taking that, thank yooou! You could hurt somebody with this!” He lifted the staff with exertion, all the strength he had, he tossed the thing at closest building away from the Spider-Monkey’s grasp.

And just so the Spider-Monkey wouldn’t get any funny ideas about trying to take it back, Araltus webbed it to the building so it wouldn’t budge. Danny jumped to the building to admire her handiwork. “Not bad. It could use more color, but I didn’t bring my rainbow webs today.” Danny quipped.

Now that was done, the next thing was actually taking this giant creature. That shouldn’t be too hard now that it was unarmed though.

The day was saved! Or so they thought. The heroes believed they were weakening the giant beast by getting rid of its rather versatile weapon. What they hadn't seemed to realize was that the Spider-Monkey never used the staff to attack them despite the overwhelming advantage he would have had, had he did. He only used it to defend against their attacks, but Araltus was right. This Spider-Monkey was strong, but most importantly it was a spider. Rage filled the uncaged beast as his staff was now used to decorate a building, but that wasn't enough for these heroes. They had to keep attacking him. He felt a familiar sting, but this time in the hand that had been electrified earlier. He roared out in anger, frustration and annoyance and turned away from the group as if he were going to climb back up the building he once rested on. Instead he released a wave of webs from his rear's spinnerets trapping Spider-Woman, the Arachnid, and Weaver in their own medicine, allowing them to feel what the criminals they used webs on went through while they waited for the police. It was not a pleasant or comfortable feeling.

The Spider-Monkey spun back around and shot two webs, one from each of his wrists, towards two cars abandoned on the street. He continued to spin and launched both cars with calculated precision at his remaining enemies. One minivan was flying towards Spider-Man and Araltus while a sedan was heading towards Argyros.

---

Spider-Woman and the Arachnid found themselves trapped alongside Weaver. These webs were stronger than the ones they created. These were natural, but still structurally more sound than what the spiders of this world created. But this confirmed something they had already known.

"He's really a spider." The Arachnid said.

Spider-Woman rolled her eyes, the mask of her suit doing the same. "Thanks for stating the obvious."

"No, he's a spider." The Arachnid repeated.

"Repeating it doesn't clarify anything." She said almost annoyed at this point.

The Arachnid sighed. "If this were a test you'd fail. You control spiders."

"I don't control spiders." Spider-Woman corrected. "I talk to them and they listen."

"You said don't and not can't."

"I've never done it. Controlling is taking away free will."

"If you don't control him he'll take away our free will to live. You can at the very least talk to him."

"I don't even know if I can. Look at him! He's not even a full spider."

"You better try or your brother's going to get flattened and oh, Araltus too." He said the latter teasingly just in case their mutual friend heard him. Otto wasn't truly as concerned with their fates as he was letting on. He may have been trapped, but he had his own plan in motion at the very moment. They were almost there. He just had to survive a little longer.

In Times Square, thought there was more to the plan than stealing the staff.

---

"Ohh.."

Oliver comes to a halt, clinging onto the side of a building as he watches the Spider-Monkey's weapon get lobbed towards a building. He thinks to himself.. Okay, that's probably fine. We've been at this for a bit, they've probably evacuated the nearby buildings by now. It still draws a wince from him, but that's primarily just reflex from something big hitting something else big. Things were still good, they disarmed the Spider-Monkey, now Spider-Woman could clue him in on step two of the plan, and-

"Ohhhhh..."

Oliver witnesses a burst of web trap Spider-Woman and the Arachnid, sticking them to the side of a building. He knew from plenty of second hand accounts how tough normal sized webs were to get out of, so that looked pretty, uh, pretty not great. And apparently that was just the start of the Spider-Monkey's retaliation. Fair enough, bad things usually happened in groups to Oliver. This was par for the course. Very scary! But par for the course. He just had to get moving, and think on his feet. He'd done it before, he could do it again.

"OHHH!!"

That was of course, when the Spider-Monkey threw a car at his head. Rising from a full frog squat to a crouch, Oliver proceeds to chain several backflips together up the side of the building he had clung to in order to avoid getting involved in a tenth story car wreck. The Sedan pierces right through the side of the building, hanging halfway through the wall. "Yipes!" Oliver declares after realizing how close he was to getting squashed. Immediately, he's grateful for two things; that he apparently didn't piss the monster off enough to earn the larger car thrown, and that he isn't all that near the other spider-folk. Hopefully they didn't hear that very un-heroic yelp.

"Come on man! That Sedan didn't do anything to you, and I know for a fact that barely any places offer insurance for this kind of stuff!" He was barely even quipping, there was real monetary anguish in his heart for the poor New Yorker who just got put in a financial hole by this Kaiju. Now this was personal. 'Cause if there was one thing the Not-Quite Spectacular Argyros had in spades, it was working class solidarity. He springs off of his cling-point, and free-dives down towards the ground, firing off twin ropes of webbing aimed at one of giant monster's eyelids. If he managed to connect, he planned to yank the eyelid down to screw with its line of sight, and use that pull to start swinging again. He had no plans beyond this. It was time to approach this like he did Man-Mountain Marko, improv and irritate until he managed to scramble together a winning sequence of moves.

..Yeah, he didn't like his odds.

Danny’s Spider Sense tingled just as the minivan went flying towards his head. “Look out!” He pushed Araltus out of the way, and barely managed to dodge the vehicle himself. The minivan crashed through a window into the building. Glass shards went flying everywhere.

Meanwhile Danny fussed over Araltus‘ state. “Are you ok? Are you hurt? Did glass get anywhere? Do you need a doctor?”

And then he heard his sister and Arachnid having an argument while tied up with web, and decided to intervene. “Hey listen, can we cut it out? Arguing isn’t going to get you anywhere… Also while my sister has a Disney Princess like relationship with Spiders, I control webs. It’s niche, but comes in handy sometimes.” And with a flick of his wrist, Danny released Spider-Woman and Arachnid from their prison, and made a nice sized ball solid of webbing in the process.

“Hey, Spider-Monkey! Think fast!” He then threw the ball of web back at the creature. “I’ve always hated Dodgeball. It’s nice being the one throwing the ball for once…”

S A M B L Y T H E | A R A L T U S

---

Maybe Sam was speaking too soon.

She watched as the Spider-Monkey appeared to finally have free reign once his weapon was gone. He wasn't only on a defensive now, he was on the offensive. Suddenly, things seemed much more dire and, really, Sam should have taken the opportunity to just bolt. But that was life. She was in this situation now and she should just accept that.

Out of the Spider-Monkey's ass came out webs and locked Spider-Woman and Arachnid into their own webby prison alongside that other spider-folk she didn't know the name of. And as if that wasn't enough, he hurled two vehicles. And one of those vehicles was unfortunately headed straight for her and Spider-Man.

She felt a push, completely disconnecting her from the building and a minivan smashed straight through the building spreading the glass shards across them like some sort of makeshift hail. Sam was quick to slow her descent with a well-placed web and landed on the ground with a small hop. Spider-Man came soon after, fussing over her. This made Sam let out a chuckle. "Calm down, calm down. If that's enough to take me down, I wouldn't be here with you guys. Get back out there, kid."

Sam gave him a wave before brushing herself off, ridding herself of the glass that had fallen across her own costume. She was wise to have made this out of some pretty resistant fabric. The last thing she wanted to do was spend a few hours stitching her costume back. She stretched her back until it popped and she shook her head. Man, was she getting too old or something? It must be the swinging.

Those thoughts aside, Araltus ran forward and shot herself forward just as Spider-Man hurled a large ball of Spider-Monkey-made webs back at its creator and their colorful-costumed buddy had something planned it appeared like. Risky move. So, Araltus decided to hang back for a more supporting role as she followed behind Arygros. In the case that he would fail in his endeavor, she was planning to pull him away with a web to get him out of the way of the Spider-Monkey's wrath.

For a group that was coming together fully for the first time their fight chemistry was nothing to scoff at. It was honestly pretty flawless and it was that chemistry that allowed them to overstimulate the Spider-Monkey's spider-senses. He didn't expect the spider-humans to recover so quickly from his attack and go immediately on the offensive. It started with Argyros pulling down on one of his eyelids and closing it shut. He roared out in irritation and slight pain from from the force of it before trying to pull the webs off so he could open his eye fully.

Just as he was pulling it off he was hit with his webs returned to him in a ball sized package. The web ball hit the Spider-Monkey directly in the chest making him stumble down the building.

Meanwhile Spider-Woman, the Arachnid, and Weaver were back on their feet. Spider-Woman was about to join the onslaught when the Arachnid reached his arm out to stop her. "They're here." He pointed to the building where the Spider-Monkey was recovering, or trying to. He couldn't focus because his head was ringing louder than usual. He looked around to see small creatures approaching him. He rubbed his eyes to see if he was seeing what he was seeing. He was. They were many mini spider robots. They surrounded him from every direction. He tried to fight off the spider bots, but whenever one touched him it immediately injected him with a gorilla tranquilizer. They were making him weaker, but it still wasn't quite enough.

Spider-Woman realized this was her time. With his mind and resistance being weaker she believed she could lull him to sleep. She sung a lullaby to the Spider-Monkey. "Go to sleep, go to sleep, little Spider-Monkey. You've caused quite a fuss and a scare, it's time to show the world you care. Go to sleep, go to sleep, little Spider-Monkey." Her voice was beautiful and it ended the Spider-Monkey's resistance. He fell asleep right there on the building, attached by instinct.

"Wow." The Arachnid, said, speaking of her voice but caught himself. "I didn't think that'd work."

Spider-Woman turned her head around so fast she almost gave herself whiplash. "It was your plan!"

"It was more of a back-up plan. My S.P.I.D.E.R.S. did most of the work."

"Spider-Totems of Earth 1205, you have passed." A discombobulated voice said echoing through the area before portals opened it under each of the Spider-Totems including the Spider-Monkey and any hidden ones.

---

The Spider-Heroes would find themselves no longer in New York or in their world. They were now in between worlds. They found themselves standing in the center of a giant web. Immediately they'd be able to see what appeared to be views into other worlds on different parts of the web. They'd be able to see other spider-themed heroes or villains on their adventures and they'd even see the world that they came from with them gone, but the damage from their battle remaining.

Before they could explore any further a green costumed Spider-Man jumped down in front of them. "I really enjoyed your fight against my Spider-Monkey. I'm sorry if he went a little rough. Oh. Where are my manners?" He removed his mask. "You may call me Anansi and I hereby welcome you, my Spider-Totems, to the Web of Life and Destiny."

Uhhh.. UHHH!?

---

..And we're back.

Fortunately for Oliver, several of the other spiders got the same idea to harass their larger, stronger foe. They were arachnids, after all. Threatening things bigger than them was right up their alley. Granted, their ideas of harassing the Spider-Monkey were a bit more.. substantial. A giant ball of webbing and an army of spider drones were things that Oliver simply could not match. Seriously, did everyone win the Spider Lottery except him?! Oh well, that meant less weight on his shoulders. And speaking of things to be grateful for, it seemed that one of the other spiders had followed after him- presumably to make sure he didn't splatter if things went awry. Perhaps a more hot-headed Spider might be offended by the idea that they'd need the help, but Oliver? Nah, getting his ass beat was practically part of the job. He very much appreciated someone watching his back.

Fortunately, it didn't end up being necessary, as the Spider-Folk fell into a rhythm. Irritate, damage, and tranquilize. It brought their foe low, and lastly;

..

Spider-Woman.. sang it a lullaby. And it worked. Oliver detaches himself from his current web lines, and fires off another line to swing over to the nearest building, clinging one-handedly to the side. He stares at the slumbering beast that had given them all so much trouble, completely dumbfounded. "Hey, really not trying to be Mister Sour Spider, but.. Could you do that the whole tiiiIII-" The rest of Argyros' baffled question would not get to be asked, as the part of the building he was clung to abruptly turned into a portal, causing him to tumble right through. As he falls through, the only thing he could think was; I should've just stayed in the Narrows..

---

Picture this; you are not the first person to gain Spider-Like abilities. You aren't even the second. You certainly aren't the most famous, or most powerful. But hey, you've got super powers, better put them to use. And then one day, you find yourself going from fighting metahuman mobsters and an admittedly pretty traumatic encounter with a human fly, to Kaiju. And then without a moment to take a breather, you go from Kaiju to presumably the, formerly only theoretical, Multiverse.

If you are having trouble picturing this, imagine how Oliver felt. He was living it. The only small comfort was that at least he hadn't been the only one spirited away. That would have been really bad. Still, even with the other Spider-Folk finding themselves warped to this otherworldly web, Oliver found himself hung up on one thing. The multiverses he could see sprawled out in front of him, some familiar, some so alien they barely resembled his own.. Anansi, and his declaration of both creating(? or controlling..?) the Spider-Monkey, and naming the group gathered 'Spider-Totems.' Well, look. Oliver was listening, he took in this information. But all he could think about as he buried his head in his hands, realizing he was almost certainly about to be involved in something way above his (non-existant) paygrade, was this;

"..I can't remember if I locked my door this morning."

Danny quietly cheered when the ball of webs hit the Spider-Monkey in the chest. It felt good to not be the one having to dodge balls for once… Then, the creature was harassed by Arachnid’s Nano-Spiders before being put to sleep by his sister’s lullaby. Danny giggled. He had been joking about her being the Disney Princess of Spiders before.

Now there was the question of what they were going to do with this beast. They did not have to think about that for long, because the question answered itself. The Spider-Monkey, along with all the other Spider people present were sucked through a portal that appeared beneath them. All Danny could do was let out a high pitched “Eep!”

—-

The next thing Danny became aware of, he was no longer in New York, but in the middle of a giant web. Amongst the web were what looked like windows into other worlds. Some looked familiar, and some looked radically different. Danny didn’t have time to question this. He had to talk to the green suited Spider that made his presence known.

Danny followed his lead, and unmasked himself. “Uh… Anansi sir. Hi, Danny Davis… Um, I have so many questions, but let’s start with the one that’s bugging me the most. What do you mean by your Spider-Totems?”

S A M B L Y T H E | A R A L T U S

---

Araltus moved to the side once the mini-spider bots had come in like a locust swarm. She sat down on one of the buildings again and she took out a cigarette and lit it before pulling her mask up halfway to start going through it. Spider-Woman had begun to sing to the Spider-Monkey and that, mixed with whatever the spider-bots were injecting into it, had completely conked out their large enemy. For a moment, Araltus had expected it to fall but the beast was simply attached to the building as it slept.

Well, that was that. Araltus took another drag of the cigarette. She wasn't going to stick around for some sort of debriefing with the other spider-people. If Otto or Caty had something to tell her, they would just tell her some other time because—

Araltus couldn't even finish the thought when a voice reverberated around the area. "What the- urk!" The ground she was sitting on quickly disappeared into a portal. Now, Araltus was no stranger to passing through solid objects or going through portals; however, usually, there was a warning before it happened.

---

Araltus landed on her feet much like the others. Mainly, she looked down at her hand and let out a breath to see that her cigarette was still there. The area they were in looked trippy and Sam was reminded of when the Crimson Court would convene in that weird magic place Mikhail liked putting them in. Unlike that place, though, Araltus was looking at different worlds and different people.

What in the everliving fuck was happening.

Then someone appeared. This green-suited spider-guy who called himself Anansi and welcoming them to the Web of Life and Destiny or whatever it was. Spider-Man, or Danny Davis she now learned as he unmasked himself, began to ask his questions. Argyros was mumbling something to himself and appeared as lost as Araltus was.

"This isn't a no-smoking place, right?" She took another drag of her cigarette nevertheless, blowing the smoke away from the others as an act of courtesy.

Caty turned to Argyros planning to answer his question before they and the others were sucked into portals. He never got the chance to finish his question, but she knew what he was asking before they were rudely interrupted by a voice from an unknown source. When they appeared back on the other side of the portal she almost forgot about answering his question. She was mesmerized by all that was in front of her. For one, they were in the middle of a giant web and this web seemed connected to different universes. She had theorized the multiverse existed, but she also didn't think that the spider-themed heroes would somehow be at the center of it. She started to get a headache at the thought of everything happening in their lives because they were connected to some multiversal web. Before Anansi arrived she turned to Argyros still loving how awesome his suit looked. "No, definitely not sing it to sleep. Arachnid's spider bots did most of the work."

The Arachnid was also mesmerized and somewhat disturbed by what he saw. He saw several universes where spider-heroes were beating up on a man with robotic tentacle arms. That had to have been him. Was he a villain in every universe, but this one? That was a lot to take in. Fortunately he wasn't trapped in his mind long before Anansi arrived giving his introduction. Otto rolled his eyes under his mask. He was not going to like any of this at all.

Anansi spoke up once again answering the questions that came his way. "Air doesn't work the same way here, so yes, Samantha. Smoke to your heart's content. And Danny, I thought you were the smart one. Look around you. Every spider in this beautiful and intricate web, including you all, got your powers from me. Anansi, the Spider-God."

And that was enough for Otto. He was not about to go on a multiversal adventure with a Spider-God where he was a villain in a lot of the universes. Absolutely not. "Well, I'll see you all at home. I have a class to teach tomorrow and I can't very well explain that I went traveling through the multiverse. The students would accept it, but not the school." The Arachnid said before heading towards the window that appeared to be their universe.

Spider-Woman grabbed him by the back of his costume's neck. "Not so fast, Doc. If we're stuck here, you are too."

"Precisely," Anansi said before shooting organic webs from his wrist to cover the portal to their reality. "At least let me finish. As I was saying, I'm the Spider-God, Anansi, not to be confused with the Grecian spider, Arachne. One day I struck a deal with my father, the God of the Sky. In exchange for enlightenment I offered my eternal services. All I cared about was exploring and learning. Now I get to explore and learn about so many different realities through you, my Spiders. Though, apparently I wasn't the first one to call this world between worlds my domain. There were a couple Great Weavers before me, but they're long gone now. All of the spiders that bit you and gave you your wonderful gifts come from me. Unfortunately with great gifts come great pain and suffering and there are a few Totems traversing the Great Web that want to remake it into their own image while killing the Spider-Totems that won't join them in the process." He paused for dramatic effect and show an expression of pained sadness before immediately switching into excitement mode.

"That's why I've tested and called you here. I needed a group of Spiders who have faced a lot and can work well with others enough to warn the others and stop these corrupt spiders in their tracks. I know I don't have to ask because you're heroes and it's what you do, but are you all ready to save the multiverse and your lives!?" Despite the seriousness of it all, Anansi couldn't help but shine a beaming smile on his new friends.

Between universes, having a real humdinger of an existential crisis.

---

Oliver would feel bad about not responding to Spider-Woman if his brain wasn't filled with static. The quite frankly overwhelming nature of this had left him unresponsive. He was taking in his surroundings, listening to what was said. But just barely, it was taking a lot of concentration to pay attention over the ringing in his ears. He couldn't help but be baffled, completely and totally baffled by all of this. The Multiverse was real, it was weirdly spider-themed, and he had been chosen by a Spider God to be a champion.

He couldn't help but wonder, why choose him, if there were plenty of Spiders to snag? Oliver was barely able to save the Narrows most days, much less one universe, much less all of them! And that wasn't some self-pity party attitude where Oliver was hoping someone would disagree, it was just being realistic! He was good.. within his weight class. Multiversal danger was way above his weight class! And the worst part was Anansi hit the nail on the head for Oliver. Even if he hated this (he did), even if he really did not want to (he didn't), if he really was needed to help save people, he'd do it. Maybe that was why he was chosen, not for his prowess, but for his extremely easy to guilt trip brain.

"-Hold on.."

Chosen..

"..You chose us? So, you're the reason we got these powers, right? Okay, okay, I'm following you so far.." Manic energy starts to slip into Oliver's voice. He was still slouched forward, head hung down, but now it was clear his body was filling up with tension. His hands balled into fists, his shoulders clearly extremely stiff.

"And- and I figure that means you decided we, specifically, would be your champions. So I guess- haha, ^{oh man, I'm about to back talk a god. I'm so dead..}- I guess what I'm wondering is, if we were hypothetically in an accident a little larger than a spider bite. What exactly does that mean for the other people caught up in it? Are they just-what, collateral? Not cosmically important enough?"

Oliver hadn't raised his voice, but he was clearly spitting venom with that last sentence. He felt uncomfortable airing this our in front of strangers, especially when there were more important things to talk about (how to save the Multiverse being #1), but he couldn't help it. That word was sitting like a rock in his stomach. Chosen. What a joke! He couldn't think of which possibility he hated worse, that him being chosen caused the lab explosion that ruined Doctor Connors' life, or that him being chosen prevented him from getting horrifically mutated just like Doctor Connors. This gift felt a lot more like a curse all of the sudden. And Oliver didn't even know where to put all of this sudden, smoldering anger.