"Into the Spider-Verse" - Part One

Part One

            I’ll admit my knowledge of comic books was scarce (I didn’t realize until my last regeneration that Clark Kent and Superman were the same bloke). Of course, I knew who Spider-Man was. News photographer Peter Parker by day and masked superhero by night. But this Spider-Man, the one Ryan addressed as “Miles Morales,” was new to me.

            Miles was caught off guard from Ryan’s knowledge of his secret identity. “H-How did you know that…I mean…” He cleared his throat, deepening his voice before he asked, “Who’s Miles Morales?”

            Obviously, he was playing dumb.

            “It’s no use, kid. They know who you are.” Another voice in the area spoke – this one sounding much older and tired.

            From the shadows emerged another Spider-Man, the one I knew all too well.

            “Peter Parker,” I uttered with amusement.

            He unmasked himself, revealing the haggard face of a man in his late-thirties with dark, graying brown hair. “Wow, you’re going two-for-two on the whole ‘secret identity’ thing,” he wittedly said. “You people must clearly be from another dimension.”

            “What gave it away?” I returned his cynicism.

            “Oh, I dunno, maybe the big blue box marked ‘police’ from that weird British sci-fi show,” Parker observed.

            “What weird British sci-fi show?” Yaz asked (I’ll admit the reference went over my head just as much so).

            Miles, removing his own mask to reveal his fresh young face (which was more acceptable than Parker’s, I must say), approached me and deduced, “You guys must’ve got here the same way Peter did. Another rift in space-time.”

            “Another?” I said. “You mean one’s opened here before?”

            Curiously, I took out my sonic and scanned the area. Just as it had in the previous reality, it picked up on dimensional energy that’d been dispersed all throughout the atmosphere.

            “It’s not nuage energy,” I said. “But there is something in the air.”

            “A little scar tissue from the Collider incident,” Parker divulged.

            My interest piqued at this. “Tell me more about this ‘Collider’.”

-----------------------

            Peter and Miles did us one better and showed us where the Collider, a massive machine capable of opening portals into other dimensions, was once housed before it was destroyed. They provided me with the location, which was an underground chamber underneath a building owned by the incarcerated Wilson Fisk (a.k.a. “Kingpin”).

            The circumstance of this location urged Yaz to ponder aloud, “What is it with these bad guys and underground labs?”

            It was a great question that I’d have to look into at a later time.

            Right now, I was busy scanning the area that was the Super Collider staging chamber. The traces of dimensional energy were a thousand times more massive here than they were above ground.

            “Definitely the source of what brought us to this dimension,” I disclosed.

            “Only there’s no machine around to shut it all down,” Graham (once again) pointed out the obvious.

            “Nope, we made sure to take care of that,” Peter stated.

            “So how’re we supposed to get you guys home?” Miles asked.

            Another great question – one that had me completely stumped on the answer.

            It didn’t help my concentration much with the sound of feet shifting over all the rubble littered on the floor, drawing our attention towards the shadows. We saw a sickly-looking man step out.

            “Hello,” I greeted him in my friendliest way. “Did your curiosity bring you down here, too?” He didn’t answer me. In fact, he hardly looked our way, seeming to be lost in another conversation with someone none of us could see.

            I slowly and cautiously approach him.

            “GET BACK!” he yelled, finally looking at me.

            I recoiled from the outburst, respecting his demand. “Alright, alright. No need to get in a huff. Would it be too much to ask your name?”

            After a few heavy breaths, the man replied, “Eddie…Eddie Brock.”

            “Oh, no,” I heard Peter gasp. “Doctor, get away from him!”

            I briefly turned to him, baffled as to what got him so cagey (wish I could have “Spider-Sense”). Then I detected this unusual gurgling noise from where Mr. Brock was standing. Turning back to him, my body stiffened. Brock was no longer in front of me; instead, it was a tall, hulking black creature with white eyes and sharp teeth.

            “Oh,” I wheezed, blanketing my fear with admiration. “And who might you be?”

            The creature answered in a haunting voice: “We are Venom!”

"Escape From the Technodrome" - Part Four

Part Four

            Getting myself trapped in a giant, underground alien fortress was one thing. But, to have my TARDIS – my TARDIS – abducted by bipedal mutant zoo animals was where I drew the line! Thankfully, the Turtles knew to head Bebop and Rocksteady off at the pass, so we waited for them to show at the main control room.

            And they did, lugging in my TARDIS through the trans-dimensional portal.

            “It’s dah Turdles!” Rocksteady (the rhino) cried out, subsequently dropping his end of the blue police box. It only added more weight for Bebop (the warthog) to carry; and, when he couldn’t any longer, he dropped his end of the box right on his foot. Serves him right!

            They opened fire on us with their laser rifles, prompting us to duck for cover.

            “Doctor,” Leonardo addressed me. “You shut down that trans-dimensional portal. We’ll handle Bebop and Rocksteady.”

            He didn’t have to tell me twice. The fearless leader and his amphibious brothers leapt into action and took on the mutant rhino and warthog. I rolled in the opposite direction, making a break for the control panel to the trans-dimensional portal. I reached into my coat, prepared to shut it down, until I realized…

            “Ergh! That stupid brain has my sonic!”

            “I sure do,” a familiar voice garbled to me. I turned to see Krang standing near me, having arrived with his lackey (Shredder) and an overwhelming number of Foot Soldiers. The fingers of his android body twirled my sonic screwdriver like it was a coin. “Good luck getting this back!”

            In his gloating, he failed to notice Michelangelo swing his nunchaku at the hand of Krang’s android body, knocking the sonic out of it. My eyes were fixed on it as it flew across the air, waiting for the opportune moment to catch it. When I did, I used it at once to rewire the controls to the trans-dimensional portal.

            I didn’t shut it down, as I originally intended.

            The plan changed when Krang, Shredder, and their mass platoon of Foot Soldiers swarmed in. The Turtles needed an escape route, and we had to get out of this dimension once and for all.

            The infinite dimensional corridor no longer swirled in view through the gateway; instead, it returned to the pinkish vortex from before. Right away, I alerted the Turtles, “I made you lot an exit out of here, but you got thirty seconds before it closes!”

            “What about you guys?” Raphael asked.

            “We’re takin’ my TARDIS,” I said. “I’ve shut down the interference. We can go home now.”

            “That’s all I need to go on,” Graham said, already making a beeline for the TARDIS with Ryan, Yaz, and even little E.T. following close behind. I followed after them, dodging laser fire from Foot Soldiers.

            Before closing the door, I made certain that the Turtles successfully escaped through the portal in time. Luckily, they did, and the window closed before Krang, Shredder, and their cronies could follow.

            Everybody lives! Just the kind of outcome I love.

            Rushing over to the controls, I took us out of this reality without a moment of hesitation. The takeoff was rough. We experienced the same intense turbulence that we had when we arrived into the infinite D.C. I wanted to assume this was normal, but my lack of knowledge of the dimensional corridor made it impossible to be 100% sure.

            The turbulence became more intense after a minute.

            And then, some strangeness started to occur.

            All around us, the console room shifted in and out between dimensions (both geometrically and metaphysically). I saw old models from back during my early travels with the white roundels and default control scheme.

            It wasn’t just the room that shifted.

            Ryan, Yaz, and Graham morphed back and forth between past friends of mine, including Ian, Barbara, and Susan. I even detected the physical changes in myself, seeing my clothes and body shift through all thirteen of my previous lives. If this weren’t so mystifyingly tedious, I would’ve found it fascinating.

            I had to end it immediately, cranking the de-mat lever.

            Another massive tremor and we all were knocked off balance.

            “I’m gettin’ real tired of being knocked on my bum!” Graham griped (a sentiment that I concur with, rubbing my own aching backside).

            “Did we make it back to our universe?” Yaz inquired.

            I looked over the readouts, all of which only gave me static. “I’m not sure,” I told Yaz with great discouragement (I hated not being sure of anything). In my frustration, I stepped out without taking any precaution of our new destination.

            A sense of déjà vu swept over me when I saw that we arrived on yet another rooftop in New York, this one being much closer to Times Square.

            “You got to be kiddin’ me, man,” I heard Ryan say behind me, seeing what I saw along with Yaz and Graham, who didn’t sound as enthusiastic themselves.

            “We’re still in New York?!” the former said.

            “The same dimension?!” the latter perceived.

            I began to feel as helpless as I had when I was held captive back in that Technodrome. The infinite D.C. was an inescapable prison, and we were locked in this one prison cell that was New York City of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dimension.

            “You guys wouldn’t happen to be from another dimension, would you?”

            Unless Ryan took up speaking with an American accent, another young lad up on that rooftop with us spoke from nowhere. The four of us gazed all about, searching for where he could’ve been talking from.

            “Over here,” he directed, sounding very close, yet we still didn’t see anyone.

            We nearly jumped out of our skins when the lad himself appeared out of thin air right in front of us. But his power of invisibility was the least surprising aspect of his appearance. As Ryan was quick to point out, this lad was none other than…

            “Spider-Man! You’re the Miles Morales Spider-Man!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK IN...

"Escape From the Technodrome" - Part Three

Part Three

            I am Doctor Idiot!

            I said that about myself once – out loud and with no one else to hear me, of course. It seemed like that name best suited the woman who was being escorted by two robot ninjas in an alien fortress she should’ve thought twice about infiltrating alone. I should’ve stuck by with my fam. Followed April to whatever it was in the sewers she was taking us. Or I could’ve at least let them in on what I found further underground.

            As we arrived at my holding cell inside the Technodrome, I turned to my escorts and tried to reason with them, “Can’t I just have a second to…?”

            Word of advice: never try reasoning with a robot ninja.

            One of them backhanded me across the face. I’ve had my share of slaps – some of the hardest at the hands of River Song and Jackie Tyler – but getting one from a robot hurt like the dickens. This one left a nasty cut to the side of my face. It was pretty deep, breaking the skin and bleeding out within a second.

            “That wasn’t nice,” I scolded to my attacker. “I just got this face!”

            Not that they cared. They shoved me into the holding cell without pause.

            Surrounded by wall-to-wall chrome, I was left to my own thoughts. And what I thought most about was how Neas’s help would be much appreciated right about now. The Gladiator of Gallifrey – a Time Lord who became lost to the infinite dimensional corridor after escaping the Time War at my urging. I crossed paths with her (or him sometimes) once or twice in the past, when my TARDIS mistakenly left the time vortex and entered the infinite D.C.

            Only now, the Gladiator was nowhere I needed them. I was entirely alone in this.

            Or, so I thought, until I sensed some movement in the shadows of my cell. Alarmed, I reached into my coat to pull out my sonic – only to be reminded that I lost it back in the main control room.

            Fists clenched, I stared into the shadows and demanded of my cellmate, “Step out, whoever you are, and show yourself!”

            They did as I requested.

            Before I knew it, I wasn’t looking at the giant monster that my wild imagination anticipated for me to see. In fact, it was totally the opposite. I got the shock of my life (which is saying a lot for a two-thousand-year-old like me) when my cellmate was another friendly alien.

            And not just any friendly alien – this one was E.T.!

            He waddled out from the shadows with his very short legs, staring at me with those enormous, adorable blue eyes.

            “Bless my soul,” I gasped in a breath of geekiness. “I can’t believe it’s you! I’m a big fan! Seen your movie so many times! Can never get to the ending though without crying – not ashamed to admit that!”

            His long, snake-like neck extended to match my height, staring closely at the cut on the side of my face. “Ouch,” he said in that classic raspy voice of his.

            “Yeah, one of those micro-brains got me good…no biggie,” I brushed it off.

            But E.T., ever the caring one, used that special glowing finger of his to touch my cut and heal it instantly. The skin where the gash used to be was now flawless, like it was never there. To see this trick happen on a movie screen was one thing; to have it happen to me up close is something special.

            “Thanks for that,” I expressed. “You just saved me a regeneration. Matter of fact, I could’ve used you thirteen lives ago!”

            In my excitement of meeting the E.T., I only just realized him to be the other specimen that living brain (“Lord Krang” was what I heard his subjects in the Technodrome address him as) mentioned.

            That brainiac is gonna dissect both of us! And I wasn’t having that happen – especially not to E.T.!

            Escape was a high priority for us. But that was impossible without my sonic, which had to be in the possession of Krang by now. No doubt the brainiac was in the process of trying to dismantle it to find out how it worked. Good luck with that, brainy! My sonic’s made from Sheffield steel!

            The best I had at my disposal was a stethoscope, which I used on the chrome wall to listen out for a power source that I could tamper with. Luckily, I found one hidden behind a wall panel that took little-to-no effort prying open.

            Knowing E.T. to possess telepathic abilities (in addition to his healing), I came up with the idea of overpowering the Foot Soldier guards outside, as soon as I rewired the cell door to open on its own. We expected the guards to rush in to see what was going on; however, neither of them showed up. I looked out to see what the delay was, only to discover the guards had already been taken down.

            By what? I had no idea.

            That’s when I saw them – four familiar anthropomorphic turtles in ninja garb.

            “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” I identified them out loud.

            “Yeah, and you must be the Doctor Dudette we’re here to save,” Michelangelo (“The Party Dude”) deduced.

            I was even more impressed to see Yaz, Ryan, and Graham accompanying the famous Heroes in a Half-shell. “Thanks for the rescue, team! But how did you find out where I was?” I asked them.

            “Well, when we didn’t see ya with us by the time we got to the Turtles’ sewer lair, they helped us to go and look for you,” Graham explained.

            “Lucky for you, we found that hole you fell through,” Ryan stated.

            “Is that E.T.?” Yaz asked, indicating the other famous character that I met.

            “Yeah, he’s another story we’ll have to figure out later,” I deferred. “That Lord Krang bloke has me sonic, and we need to get it back from him.”

            There was uneasiness in Graham’s face as he told me, “That ain’t all that he has.”

            “On the way in here, we saw Bebop and Rocksteady luggin’ in the TARDIS.”

            This news Ryan laid on me was the last thing I needed to hear, when this situation was already out of control.

"Escape From the Technodrome" - Part Two

Part Two

            When April said “sewer,” I didn’t think she actually meant the sewer. O.K., maybe I did. But it still surprised me just as much as Graham, Ryan, and Yaz. There we were, not a moment later, up to our ankles in rubbish, following a news reporter to God-knows-where. Can you imagine how excited I am right now?!

            “I can think of a million others things that I’d rather be doin’ than this,” Graham griped out loud, ever the buzzkill.

            I was right behind him and the others with my eyes on my sonic, which continued to pick up on that source of the dimensional interference. I heard Ryan and Yaz continue their conversation from earlier in the news van. “I think I got an idea now of where we are,” Ryan whispered to Yaz. “The reporter named April O’Neil…the sewers…it’s all beginnin’ to make sense.”

            Curious to hear his hypothesis, I was suddenly drawn even closer to the readings on my sonic, which indicated that the signal was coming from a direction opposite of where April led us in. I didn’t think to let the team know when I followed it to the middle of some intersecting tunnels, with nowhere to turn.

            “Oh, great,” I sarcastically said to no one in particular. “Now where do I go from hereeeeeeeeeeeeee………!!!!!”

            A sudden quake solved my dilemma.

            It caused the ground beneath my feet to give away, sending me sliding further below ground. I could feel the back of my coat – my beautiful coat – getting ruined by the mixed sludge of sewer water and mud while barreling down the large burrow. I was relieved once I finally reached the end, tumbling onto a large mound of mud.

            I was beginning to agree with Graham about this whole thing.

            Pulling my sonic out of the mud, I stood up to see the massive catacombs I slid into. I nearly fell back down again just as my eyes locked onto an overwhelming sight: a semi-spherical, tank-like alien construct with a giant mechanical “eye” at the top.

            No doubt this was the source of the dimensional interference!

            It was probably a good idea to stay with the others. But there wasn’t any time to sulk over my own carelessness (there was plenty of time to do that later – maybe with some otters, for old times’ sake). I braved myself along into penetrating my way inside the alien construct, with a little help from the sonic screwdriver. Truthfully, the whole technological monstrosity fascinated me, especially the inside of it. The hallways were nice and chrome (I always love an alien fortress that had nice, clean chrome hallways), and the walls continuously blinked like lights on a Christmas tree.

            Soon I was forced to hide when I heard a couple of goofy voices coming from around the corner.

            “Why’d the boss hafta put us on bathroom duty?” one of them said.

            “Yeah, I didn’t know the Technodrome had bathrooms,” the other said, snorting like a pig in-between syllables.

            So, “Technodrome” is what this thing is called.

            Doesn’t roll off the tongue as majestically as “TARDIS” does, but I kinda like it.

            As it turned out, the two goofballs I hid from were a rhino and a warthog in anthropomorphic form, dressed like street punks. Whether they were alien or not, I could not discern. As soon as they were away, I continued my sneaking through the rest of the Technodrome.

            I happened on a very large area – possibly the biggest room of the entire fortress. I figured it to be the main control room. Housed within it was a large trans-dimensional portal, sparking with pinkish energy. With a quick scan from my sonic, I discovered it to be the primary cause of the interference with the dematerialization circuits of the TARDIS.

            I have to shut this thing down now.

            There was a control panel near the portal that I went to fiddle with, managing to open a passageway into the infinite dimensional corridor itself. The pinkish portal was replaced by the swirling blue vortex associated with the infinite D.C. Its display momentarily mesmerized me, ensnaring me in a hypnotic wave of admiration and reminiscence of the worlds I’ve traveled to before in my past lives.

            Snap out of it, Doctor! It’s just the infinite D.C.!

            I finally motioned to shutting down the machine, taking aim at it with my sonic, not wishing for the ones who run this place to have access to the countless worlds within the dimensional corridor.

            My efforts were intervened when my sonic was shot out of my hand by laser fire.

            It hurt like the dickens but fortunately left no burns of any kind.

            Turning to see the culprit of the attack, I was once again astounded by another of the Technodrome’s many wonders (or oddities) – a tall, bulky android body with a living brain where its stomach should be. He was accompanied by a man in a samurai-type getup (complete with sharp blades that protruded from his shoulders and hands) and an army of purple ninjas.

            They had me completely surrounded.

            “You’re quite the sight,” I said of the living brain inside the android body. “I’ve seen a species like yours before…except they kept their brains in their heads, not their stomachs.”

            “Well, what have we here, boys,” the brain mocked in his garbled tone, pitched between high and low. “A curious human who has wandered too far for her own good.”

            “I was a bit curious…but I’m far from human,” I refuted.

            “Look human enough to me,” the samurai man scrutinized.

            The brain didn’t seem to take his word for it, having his android body scan me from head to toe through a blue laser emitting out of its “eyes.” It was a harmless laser, though it gave me a slight tickling sensation.

            “Her biology is different – she has two hearts,” the brain discovered. “Either that’s a nasty birth defect or you’re an alien.”

            “I think we both know the answer to that one, mate,” I said.

            I was then subjected to the most revolting eyesore of the living brain’s mouth salivating in exhilaration. “I do look forward to dissecting you, maybe finding what else you’ve got two of,” he cackled. “You along with the other specimen we picked up through the trans-dimensional portal.”

            He proceeded to order his ninja enforcers – “Foot Soldiers,” he called them – to put me in holding. As they did so, I found myself regretting now more than ever about separating from the team.