feet in the sand, drink in hand.

she wasn’t one to trust a stranger. however, she didn’t doubt him for a second when he said he was someone she could trust. she followed alongside him, matching his strides as they walked along. “i hope i can too. they’re my rock. it’s meeting you too, kaine.” this place was massive, and kate knew tracking her friends might be pointless. there was a chance they weren’t even here. so, she decided it was best not to search too hard for anyone. “manhattan? it was great. i loved the city. i used to have a little running route in the city, actually. there was a coffee shop down the street from where i lived with my dad that knew my name and my order. it’s a big city, you know, but part of it still felt like a small town in a sense. i guess the part i lived in was almost like a sub-community of manhattan.” it was nice talking about home. she truly loved manhattan, and never planned on leaving. “tell me about yourself, kaine. you said you were from texas, right?”

The city is a large place, that much is true. Kaine wouldn’t want to track someone down through the city he could help it, sounds more like something a hero would do. The clone could probably communicate with the spiders living in this place to find someone — being able to communicate with the creatures helpful. “Well that sounds nice. A sense of community is important, right? If we ever go back maybe I’ll have to check Manhattan out for real.” Not whatever this mixture of cities has been turned into. “I was born in New York — well, created in a laboratory located in the city. When I escaped I settled in Texas. I’m a clone, just want to uh, get that out there right now.”

kate quickly pulled her arm away from the man she grabbed. truly, she hadn’t meant to grab anyone, but no one seemed to pay her any attention. “new gotham?” with the raise of her eyebrows, the young archer examined her surroundings once again. “please. i could use a cup or two right about now.” she follows alongside him, tucking her weapon over her shoulder. hardly anyone had batted an eye at the girl in bright purple carrying a bow, so she assumed it wasn’t out of the norm around here. “yeah, basically. my friends–my team–have seemed to of disappeared the past few months. i’m from manhattan. i just showed up here in this outfit completely clueless.” a small smile tugged at the corner’s of her lips at his thick southern accent. “nice to meet you, kaine. i’m kate bishop.”

“Follow me, you can trust my word.” Kaine admits while heading to the coffee shop that was in mind. He doesn’t really care if the woman was dressed as some hero — it seemed to become his new normal being surrounded by them. He doesn’t believe in himself being one, but his two brothers at which is something. “It’s nice to meet you, Kate. I hope you can find your missing friends. I’m sure they’re around here somewhere if they went missing.” Kaine isn’t some detective, so tracking them down for her wouldn’t be a possibility. He places his hands on his hips — at least offering a good cup of coffee could be done. “What was growing up in Manhattan like?”

Tim was feeling off about things, because he liked two guys. A lot. Kaine and Klarion. Funny two K names. But he felt bad, because he didn’t want to be seen as a ‘player’ or be someone who was leading people on. But he had been recently looking up poly-amorous relationships and how they worked and how they didn’t work. So, he decided that he could take both boys out and tell them what was going on and too see if they could work on a polyship. But if not then he’d probably be stuck with the choice of choosing between the two. He sighed and entered into the elegant restaurant. He was dressed in a fancy black suit with his hair slicked back. “Hey, Wade. Uh yes the usual booth, please.” He nodded, following the host to the booth and waited for the two boys to arrive. 

His mind was all over the place and he wondered if they guys would even talk to him after this. It was nerve wrecking for sure, because this could have went three ways - they agreed on the polyship, they didn’t agree but still wanted Tim and he had to choose, or they didn’t agree and probably wanted to kill Tim for this.

He heard footsteps approaching and he quickly looked up. “Hey. How are you?”

@clonedspider​ @samalxnova​

Kaine doesn’t know what to expect going into this — never been in any relationship to have something to compare this to. Which would make being in a polyamorous relationship very new for him especially, but of course doesn’t know that would be why he was invited out. Kaine was always anxious about being thrown into something new, but that was a result of a lifetime of trauma in his short life. He would be hopeful, after all people wouldn’t take you out somewhere nice to be cruel — right?

Tim wasn’t like that, he was a good man, and Kaine knows that. This restaurant was fancier than anything that he could ever afford. He quickly sends a photo of the decor to his brothers before moving on to where the booth would be for this. It looks like he was the second one to arrive? “Hey there.” He says while sliding into one side, smiling over at Tim. “You look handsome, and I’m underdressed. I’m pretty good actually all things considered after being stuck in that strange forest. How are you doing?”

part of her was convinced this was still a bad dream. a few hours ago she was in her dad’s home. it was the first time she’d seen him in years. now, she was in the street of a strange city, but some areas still looked familiar. she looked down and spotted her prized weapon in her hand and her hawkeye uniform was covering her. she reached a hand back to feel her hair pulled back into its typical tight ponytail. kate felt around her pockets for her phone to call her dad–nothing. god, what was happening? kate reached out, grabbing the arm of the first person that walked by. “hey. can you tell me where i am? or at least where the closest coffee shop is.” she straightened up a bit and tried tucking her bow behind her. “i’m, uh, new in town and i think i’m lost.” it was a lie, but kate didn’t exactly feel like explaining her confusion.

Kaine doesn’t expect someone to grab him when he walks by them, on alert after that, but that was the usual reaction for him in situations like this. “Uh, you’re in New Gotham. It sucks, but I can show you where to get good coffee.” He could use a cup himself, not sure how long that he has been awake by now. “It’s maybe five blocks from here, but trust my word that it’s amazing.” Kaine says as he pulls his arm back to his side, and motions for the girl to follow him. “You wake up somewhere you shouldn’t be? It happened to me too. One minute I was in Texas, and now I’m here.” The southern accent thick on his words. “Kaine Parker, by the way.”

TV–god, this felt like a bad episode of some campy late 90s, early aughts TV show. Two brothers, under-prepared and under-equipped, stuck in the woods with a horde of monsters…. But it’s fine, they’re fine, they’ll be fine. And Kaine wanted to watch TV with him, a major success. “Once we figure this out, we’re gluing our asses to the couch and not leaving until you’ve seen every episode of Doctor Who–new and old. Like Kaine, Ben doesn’t have his suit; unlike Kaine, his webbing isn’t organic, but he wears his web shooters under his jacket anyway. “Okay,” he says, pushing up his sleeves. “Let’s punch some stuff. Where do we start?”

“I don’t think it’s possible to watch all of it in one night AND we will need sleep at some point. How many episodes of this Doctor Who are there? This isn’t another medical drama is it?” Kaine truly didn’t have a clue, but at least he had family to navigate him through this world. “I guess we just start with whatever pops out at us first — like that!” Kaine says while one of the creatures starts charging their way looking very angry. He shots a web-like out at it, aiming at the feet.

“Some might not be worthy but we don’t talk about those.” Shaking his head, Thor had encountered a few people that would stay evil, no matter what. Look at his sister, she could never be saved. At first he thought Loki wouldn’t either but in the end, he did show he cared. Sort of. He never got rid of his trickster ways. “Oh…” Not having expected that answer, he didn’t know much about labs and anything science related. That was more Bruce or Tony’s speciality. “Just because something went wrong doesn’t mean you should’ve been thrown away or something. You seem like a good kid. Just do go bad or I’ll come after you.” Smiling widely, Thor felt for the kid as it seemed to have affected him badly. He was getting better at reading people’s emotions. “Well, surprisingly, anything. Trust me, kid, there are a lot of monsters out there.”

“Everyone deserves a chance to be good.” Sort of but Thor decided to be a little softer with his words this time as this guy seemed to be struggling with something. Having been around humans a lot more, he has picked a few things up. “No need to call me sir. Thor will be fine.” Smiling softly, he heard a few branches snap, looking around to see if someone or something was trying to sneak up on them. “Alright, just don’t run away screaming if you see something jump out at you.”

“Don’t tell,” she whispers, “but so am I. That’s why you get yourself a fake ID and don’t ever tell your cop father.” She didn’t drink that much–definitely not at home, she didn’t have a death wish–but enough. A normal amount. Back when she was normal, so many lifetimes ago, sitting next to another boy who had looked so much like this one. A drink now would probably make this easier, too. 

Created? What does that mean? Who is this boy, if he isn’t Peter, if she’s as much a ghost to him as he is to her? She wants to say you look like him too, she wants to hold him close and pretend that she’s sixteen again and he’s Peter, her Peter, and nothing has changed, but she knows she’d just look like a crazy person, so instead she nods and says, “Yes, let’s. Be friends, I mean.”

“You’re cool.” Kaine admits with a grin, anyone willing to go that far to have one drink must be some kind of badass. They only just met, yet something was so familiar about her the name and EVERYTHING is uncanny, but he needs to try not focusing on that. He knows admitting you’re a clone made by some psycho in a lab doesn’t really make well for first impressions. It never quite does, the idea someone out there could grow a new human being shared people.

He wasn’t a real boy. He bleeds, but that doesn’t mean he has the right to exist.

“I would really like that. So, tell me something  about yourself.” This could be the best way to pass time while they wait out here guarding the rest of the city from the creatures in the forest.

The more time Ben spent in the forest, the worse it got. More fog, more monsters, more trees catching at his suit, more new and exciting opportunities to die. But he’s here, and so are his brothers, and they’re in it together now. “I mean, I would also rather be literally anywhere that isn’t here,” he says, and shrugs. “But I also don’t want to let any of the defenseless people out there get eaten by werewolves, y’know? I just… I don’t know the best way to go about this. We could lock ourselves in, I guess. Take one for the team. Or we could stand outside and try to fight them off? Do we want to be offense or defense?”

Kaine hated all of this, being stuck in this random forest just because there was some creatures living in it. What if they just left them alone maybe they wouldn’t come wandering out. He doesn’t want to call them monsters, having been called one many times before being cured of his degeneration. “We could be watching something on the television right now.” He admits as he shrugs as well, but sighs. He doesn’t have his suit on him, but luckily his webbing is organic. “I vote we go offense. I like a good fight, punching something sounds so much fun right now.”

“I mean, it might be, who knows?” Lorna reassured the other with a small laugh. “You’re a clone? My friend just so happens to be one too, but they tell everyone they’re triplets. I’m a mutant, y’know someone with naturally born powers like the power to orb things and the power of magnetism like my dad.”

“okay, han solo,” peter jokes, laughing softly as he heads into the forest. “just joking. i get it. and i agree, honestly. it’s a creepy forest, it gives off bad vibes.” he nods his head in agreement. “look on the bright side – once we find ben and get out of the weird forest, we can get pizza. something to look forward to, right?” he turns to face his brother, walking backwards into the forest, and gave him a small smile. “and, ben did go in here, right? i hope he’s alright…” his smile fades, his brows knitting together in worry. his attention on their brother doesn’t last long, however, as his attention snaps towards a loud growl in the distance. “what… what was that?”

Kaine doesn’t understand the reference, but why would he? He doesn’t have memories of watching those films aside from that he should enjoy it. His brothers enjoyed it very much from what he could tell, and if they get out of this maybe finally agreeing to watch one would be sort of fun. The happiness it might possibly being Peter and Ben would be worth it in the end. “I could go for some pizza. We might need to order two of them though knowing us. Pete?” He says pausing as he stops next to him. “I’m willing to give watching those space movies a try if we somehow survive the forest. I think Ben came in here, yeah, can’t imagine why though. Why would anyone —“ His voice stops looking over at the source of the sound. He  steps in front of Peter. “I’ll fight whatever it is, you run!”

Thor let out a laugh, patting the guy on the back. “That’s more like it.” Part of him still didn’t understand why people would hesitate with things like this. Then again, he did come from Asgard, a world that was completely different than Earth so he used to deal with a lot worse. “I’m sure people won’t mistake you for a hero just because you went in there…” Shaking his head, he wasn’t sure he quite understood what the guy meant but he just went with it. “Then you should definitely join me. So yes, I’m going in. Do I look like someone that would trick you?” That was more his brother’s speciality. “Just a head’s up, anything could happen in there…” Smirking, he was mostly joking but with the mysterious voices he heard calling out to him before, something had to be lurking.

Kaine knew that coming in the forest was a terrible idea, so why was he in here? Oh, that’s right! He didn’t want his brothers going in alone, something about wanting the three of them being in this together. “Why don’t we just leave?” He thought that was a good idea, as he could think of many places in the city that would be more fun than here. The clone rubs the back of his neck, not sure what to call the creatures. Monster doesn’t feel right, not when he considers himself one too. “If we’re guarding around the forest we stop anyone from getting in, but brother keep in mind that means we’re stuck in here.”

“That’s too bad. You’re missing out on the finer things in life, like really shitty beer and a good old rum and coke.” She sits down beside him, smirking a little. The mud and slush will probably ruin her clothes, probably come back to haunt her, but she’s too tired to bother standing and shivering anymore. Her suit’s already hanging to dry back at home, she’s been through worse. Being around him is a trip, bringing back memories she’d tried to keep buried, all now just a little distorted. She can’t decide if she likes it or not, but she’s here. Something deep in her chest is burning, and she swallows; she can have an existential crisis later. Not now. She’s committed to this. 

Brothers. Hm. Could he– Peter didn’t have a brother, but this was a different timeline, all topsy-turvy and backwards. Anything was possible. Stop it, you’re imagining things. Except… Parker. His last name was Parker. And he had no idea who she was. Fuck. “I’m Gwen,” she says. “Stacy. Good to meet you, Kaine.” She doesn’t know if she’d rather her name trigger anything or mean nothing to him. Being anonymous is kind of nice, but so is seeing Peter’s face (or some version of it) again.

“ I like beer when I do drink. I’m a simple guy apparently, but I’m too young to actually be in a bar.” Not that it mattered the times he did manage to sneak in. Which was how he met his first friend! She was the bartender! Kaine wasn’t given anymore alcohol once she found out he was under the age of twenty-one, but continues to look out for him anyway. Which is why he ended up at a rodeo and rooftop parties looking at the stars. He couldn’t believe it sometimes.

“Gwen.” His eyes widen, not seeing things after all. This couldn’t be, but his own memories just thinking about the clone of her that has ceased to exist. “I’m sorry — you just look like someone I knew once. It’s uncanny. She was there when I was created, it’s a long story. Now that we know each other better we can be friends can’t we?”