//------------------------------//
// Interlude 3: The Second Spider: Meet Miles Morales! 
// Story: Equestria Girls/Spider-man Book 1: Amazing 
// by Equestrian Defender 
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-Sunday May 7th, 2019-

Flash and his Aunt May walked down the street towards the F.E.A.S.T. shelter, each of them holding a cone full of their favorite ice cream (Flash's being the new red velvet cake flavor* and May's was a plain ol' vanilla.) 

As they walked they talked; mostly about day-to-day stuff like school, life, friendship, and of course his new relationship with Twilight Sparkle. 

Yeah, the red on his face was not from the ice cream.

Groaning, he replied "Aunt May, come on! I'm fifteen, she's fourteen, and we just became an official couple on Friday. I think it's a bit too soon to be talking about marriage, or how cute our kids could end up looking." Taking a lick of his ice cream he added "You're worse than some of the members of the Anime Club at school. We constantly hear them arguing about their shippings and which ship would have cuter kids."

She giggled at that. "I don't think I'm THAT bad."

"True. You're not swearing at me in Japanese."

They laughed at that as they reached the shelter. "So, are your other friends going to be joining us today?"

Flash shook his head. "They would if they could, but Twilight's got her internship today and Thorax is working on some homework."

That was mostly true. Twilight was at her internship at Oscorp, and Thorax was working on something. It just wasn't homework. Rather he was looking at the data that Karen had managed to sift through so far, as well as work on some surveillance on Cinch. 

"What about the Rainbooms? Those girls really know how to brighten this place up," May said.

"I think you got that covered," Flash replied with a smile. "But they all had plans. Rainbow's practicing for the upcoming Friendship Games, Pinkie Pie's babysitting the Cake twins (Poor Girl.), Fluttershy's busy at the shelter, Sunset said she's got plans for today, and Applejack's helping Rarity with something at her house. Looks like it's just you and me."

Once inside Flash headed back to the kitchen to find the clipboard that listed what needed to be done today. Once he found it his phone buzzed, showing a notification for the Spidey-Blog. Opening it, he saw a post with the two pictures he took yesterday; one of the beaten thugs and another of that spray-painted spider-symbol he saw yesterday with the title Is There Another Spider-Man? The article underneath also showed some cell phone pics of two copies of the spider; one in Brooklyn and the other near Chinatown. Both pictures also showed some crooks (a group of five thugs who were harassing a woman and a purse-snatcher who stole from an old lady) beaten up and had their hands and feet zip-tied together. In both cases the woman and the lady said that the one who saved them seemed to be Spider-Man, but with a different voice, a cheaply made costume, and didn't use any webs at all. But they also said that he was strong, fast, and he could climb on walls, which seemed to point that he was indeed similar to "Our Friendly Neighborhood Hero" as Fluttershy put it.

Flash smirked. "If he is like me I should probably find him. See what his deal is." Looking at the clipboard he groaned. "But first,  I gotta clean the toilets on the west side. Again." He shuddered at one particular memory. Hopefully the toilet doesn't explode on me this time.





RING! RING! RING!

If there was one thing Miles Morales hated above all else, it was the dreaded enemy of sleep. The most hated monster in all of the world that would constantly ring or buzz or annoy him until he finally got out of bed.

That stupid alarm clock app on his phone. 

Lazily turning it off he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Sadly, the sun was out and his bed just so happened to be positioned that it would shine directly on his face. Is the whole world against me sleeping in today he mentally grumbled.

Realizing it was futile he lazily got out of bed, stretching before checking his phone and seeing two texts. One from his mom, Rio Morales; and the other from his dad, Jefferson Davis.

Mom: Had to go to work early, sweetie. Try and be home for dinner. I'm making your favorite!

Miles smirked at that. "Mom knows I ain't missing meatloaf and mashed potatoes."

He then read his father's text.

Dad: Good luck volunteering at F.E.A.S.T. today. Try not to turn one of their TVs into a robot.

He hadn't forgotten. After all, he still wanted to get some volunteer hours in before the year was up, since he hadn't had the time to do any at his old school. 

Yeah, his family had just moved to Midtown from Brooklyn after his father got transferred to the precinct here. It wasn't a bad thing. The apartment they were in now was a lot nicer than their old one. Heck, his room actually had a door now instead of a blanket nailed to the top of the empty door frame. Plus, he didn't actually have a lot of friend at his old school. Mainly because they were all either jocks or rich snobs, while he was more or less a geek. 

Granted a geek with a much better fashion sense, but still.

Remembering the incident from when he was ten, he rolled his eyes. "Waste of a perfectly good TV. Never again."

Once he was dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt (no need for a hoodie or jacket since it was in the 80s today.) and had a nice breakfast of Cocoa Puffs and coffee, he packed his homemade suit and a can of red spray-paint into his backpack. After he left the apartment he decided to walk to the shelter, since it was only a few blocks away and he could use the exercise. He put on his Bluetooth earbuds and picked a song on his phone. One song in particular piqued his interest.

"NateWantsToBattle did a cover of this? Sweet!" 

As the song played he looked through his phone, pulling up the Spidey-Blog and looking at their latest post. Seeing a picture of his symbol he couldn't help but grin. "Glad to see people are starting to notice. And Spider-Man did too. Now I just need to figure out how to find him so I can talk to him.

'I mean it's not like I'm just gonna randomly run into him when I get to F.E.A.S.T."





Flash had managed to clean the toilets with little to no difficulty, and no exploding toilets. Afterwards he helped fix one of the bunk beds which had a few screws loose, and now he was back in the kitchen cutting up vegetables for today's lunch.

Aunt May came in and asked "How're you doing, Flash?"

Flash wiped his watering eyes with his sleeve. "Fine until I got to the onions. Also, I checked the fridge. We're gonna need more milk."

"Already on the list. Speaking of which, I need to step out and get a few things."

"Okay."

"And we have a new volunteer today. Can you show him around while I'm gone?"

"I think I can manage," Flash replied, cutting up the last of the vegetables and transferring them to a plastic bowl.

A few minutes later Flash was walking into the lobby, seeing his aunt talking to an African American teen he assumed was the new volunteer. Aunt May saw him and said "Good, he's here. Miles, this is my nephew, Flash. Flash, this is-"

"Miles Morales," the teen said, holding out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Flash replied, shaking his hand.

The moment his hand made contact with Miles' his Spider-Sense started going off. Only, instead of the usual loud "bodily harm incoming" buzz it was more like a "something's off about this kid" softer buzz. This was kinda surprising since Miles didn't look like he was a threat, and he certainly didn't see any weapons on him.

But even more surprising was the momentary look of shock that crossed Miles' face, almost as if-

No way. He can't... Can he?

Thinking quickly he released Miles' hand and asked "Hey, you need a place to stash that backpack?"

Deciding to play it cool, Miles replied "Uh, yeah."

"Okay, there's a mostly empty supply closet no one uses. It'll be safe there."

Aunt May smiled and said "Alright then. Well, I'm off to the store. You two try not to destroy the place while I'm gone."

"Got it."

"No problem." At least I hope there won't be a problem.





Miles was a bit nervous as he followed Flash. Not because of the volunteer work he was going to be doing, but rather because of that weird tingle he felt in the back of his head when he and Flash shook hands. In the two weeks, roughly, that he got his powers he came to learn that tingle was a sort of early warning alarm. Whenever something was about to happen that could hurt him, he'd get the buzz, get a general idea of where it was coming from, and he'd have a few seconds to react. Which with his enhanced reflexes gave him roughly a minute to react and get out of the way. Granted he usually had no idea what the danger was unless he got a good look at it, but it still helped him out in the few times he did put on his homemade suit and fought some thugs.

So, why did it go off when he shook hands with Flash? 

Flash led Miles to the supply closet, which wasn't much. Just a typical closet with a ventilation shaft big enough for a person to fit through. Miles placed the backpack on one of the shelves and asked "You sure it'll be safe here?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Nobody really uses this closet."

"Except you," Miles asked, a bit curious.

Flash noticed this and quickly said "My Aunt's kind of embarassing sometimes. Especially when I'm talking to my girlfriend on the phone. So..."

"Ah, I got ya," Miles replied, though in all actuality he wasn't convinced. Pull the other one, Sentry. It shoots fireworks.

Flash's phone rang, and he said "Speaking of which." Looking at Miles he asked "You mind if I-"

"Go right ahead." 

As Flash stepped out of the room to answer the phone, Miles checked his phone. Very poor reception in here. And I bet if I closed the door there'd be just about none. So there goes the "wanna talk to my girl without my Aunt overhearing excuse." What exactly are you hiding, Flash? 

Stashing that thought away he looked around the supply closet. Nothing seemed out of place or out of the ordinary.

Then he remembered the vent.

Making sure that Flash was still on the phone, Miles jumped up and adhered himself to the ceiling with the fingertips of his left hand, swinging himself up and sticking his feet to the ceiling. I'm not sure how the hell these adhesion powers work when my feet and hands are covered by gloves, but I'm not gonna complain.

He reached up and started running one hand along the edge of the vent, finding the clasps and unclasping them. He was just about to undo the final one when...

"Okay Miles, let's get to-"

Flash stopped, his eyes locked on Miles, who was still adhered to the ceiling. Miles cursed his luck. So much for keeping these powers a secret.

At that moment, his finger moved just enough to undo the final clasp and the vent cover fell open...

...and out fell a very familiar looking red and blue suit, with a black spider emblem on the chest.

Miles looked at the suit, then at Flash. Then back to the suit, and back to Flash. 

And all the pieces started falling into place. Well, this was definitely not what I was expecting.

Before Miles could say anything Flash sighed and said "God, I suck at keeping secrets."

Miles chuckled and gestured to himself, still sticking to the ceiling. "Hey, I don't have much room to talk."

Flash couldn't help but chuckle too, before grabbing his suit and jumping up to the vent, stashing his suit back inside and closing it. He then looked at Miles and asked "So, I take it you're the other "Spider-Man" who's been leaving that mark at the scene of his fights?"

Miles nodded. "Yeah.  Figured I'd leave my own mark instead of just leaving a Post-It like you do."

"That's cool. So, how exactly did you get powers like mine?"

Checking the time on his phone, Miles replied "It's a long story and I still wanna get some volunteer hours in. Mind if I tell you later?"

Dropping down to the floor, Flash replied "Sure."





So, up until about two weeks ago I was living in Brooklyn. My dad's a cop and my mom's a nurse. I didn't have a lot, if any, friends in my old school since I tended to be one of the smartest kids there while most of the population were jocks or rich kids. That and my dad arrested the father of the captain of the football team, so you can imagine how that ended up.

Well, after my dad got transferred to the Midtown precinct and we moved here last week, I decided to go for a walk. You know, familiarize myself with the area, make sure I wouldn't get lost after school, that kind of stuff. 

Plus I was hungry, so I wanted to find a place I could grab a decent burger and fries. 

Well there I was minding my own business, when I suddenly heard screeching tires and a loud CRASH! I checked around the corner and saw that an Oscorp delivery truck had lost control and slammed into a light pole. Since I didn't see any signs of the engine being on fire, I immediately ran to the truck to see if anyone was hurt or needed to go to the hospital. Well, immediately after I called my dad and told him what was going on.

The driver was fine, but he said that there was someone in the back. So I opened the back and found the guy with a nasty looking bruise on his forehead. I helped him out, and once he was out I noticed just they were transporting: animals. I saw several kinds of insects, lizards, I think I saw a tank with a few electric eels.

What I didn't see or notice was a black spider with red legs** deciding to hitch a ride on my backpack, managing to get in through that slight hole I had on the side.

So that night when I opened it up to grab my laptop, I guess I scared it or something because it bit me!





"And let me guess," Flash said, cutting him off. "You went to bed that night feeling sick. Next morning, you wake up with sticking to the ceiling and with other superpowers?"

It was about two hours later and Flash and Miles were on the roof, using the excuse of adjusting the satellite dishes for the TV. Once they were done, Flash asked him for his story, and he told him.

Miles nodded before grabbing a wrench and tightening a bolt on the one dish. "Well, I was stuck on the wall. But close enough." Once he was done he put the wrench back in the toolbox and said "I also found I could do this."

He took a deep breath, and then his body seemed to fade before he vanished completely. Flash's jaw dropped at the sight. "You have adaptive camouflage?"

"Yep," Miles replied, his voice coming from behind Flash. He turned in time to see Miles reappear, smiling. "It comes in pretty handy for sneaking up on thugs. It's also pretty funny when they go 'Hey! Who the hell just punched me?'"

Flash laughed. "Yeah, that does sound pretty funny. Wish I had that power. Best I got is my Stealth Suit back in the lair, and the cloaking field on that fizzles out if it rains or gets wet."  

"You have a Stealth Suit? I don't remember seeing that."

Smirking, Flash replied "Well, that's kind of the point." 

"Fair enough." Miles then moved to another dish and said "Anyway, yeah. That's how I got my powers."

"And you decided to start fighting crime?"

Miles shook his head. "Not at first."





Honestly, my powers kinda scared. Not in the "I feel like a freak" kind of way. More like the "I better not let anyone find out about this otherwise I'll end up on the dissection table" way. So I decided to keep them to myself and just try and stay a normal kid.

But then when I was walking home one rainy day I saw a woman and her kids getting harassed by some random thugs. One of them had a knife. 

I had no control. My legs just moved on their own, my hand curled into a fist, and I sent the one guy flying into the wall with a punch. The one guy tried to hit me with a baseball bat from behind, but that... What did you call it again?

Spider-Sense.

Yeah, it went off and I was able to dodge, yank it out of his hands, and then take him down.

But then I saw the guy with the knife holding one of the kids hostage. I was scared, and I guess that somehow triggered my Camouflage ability, because next thing I know I was see through and the guy was like "Where'd the hell he'd go?" He loosened his grip on the kid, and that was all I needed to pull the kid away. After that it was just a few invisible punches and a shot to his manly parts and he was down. 

When I checked to see if they were okay, the kids tackle hugged me and wouldn't stop thanking me. They even called me their hero. 

And that's when I realized something.

My dad always told me that he believed that if someone needed help, and you could help them, then you should do it. Not because it'll make you feel better, not because it'll make you look better, but because it's the right thing to do. I always see new stories of Spider-Man fighting supervillains and saving people who are caught in the cross-fire, and about gangs and criminals who are doing their best to tear this city apart. I always wanted to help, but I couldn't because I'm just a kid. A kid can't exactly do much when the bad guys have things like guns, knives, and now superpowers.

But now I have my own powers. I can do things that I never thought I'd ever be able to do.

And I wanna help, any way I can.





"So after that day I put together a homemade costume, and I've been going out and fighting criminals for about a week now." 

Flash was silent for a moment, before he said "You know, what your dad said kinda sounds like what my uncle told me. He always told me that with great power, there must also come great responsibility."

"He sounds like a wise man."

He nodded sadly. "Yeah. He was."

Immediately picking up on that, Miles said "Oh man. I'm so sorry."

"Not as sorry as I am," he replied. Looking at Miles he continued "I got my powers last November. And when I first got them, I had no intentions of being a superhero. I wanted to use them to try and help out my Aunt and Uncle pay off some of the bills. You know, try and pay them back for all they did for me."

"I can understand that," Miles said. "So, what happened?"

Flash sighed before he told Miles what happened that fateful night, and all that happened afterwards. When he was finished, he waited to see what Miles's reaction would be.

Miles was a bit shocked at first, but eventually he said "It wasn't your fault, man."

"I try to tell myself that somedays. It never works." Looking at Miles, he managed a smile and said "I guess at the very least, I can help you so that you A) Don't get yourself killed and B) Don't make some of the mistakes I've made. But I gotta ask; are you sure you want to walk down this road? Because let me tell you, it's not an easy one. Because so far since I've become Spider-Man I've been punched, kicked, cut and nicked, blasted by Shocker, almost took a death dive in the Hudson because of Vulture, been poisoned by Scorpion (which was really not fun), nearly crushed by both Sandman and Rhino, and just yesterday I had to stop an uprising of genetically modified lizard people. THAT, is some of the freaky stuff you're signing up for. So again, are you sure you want to do this?"

Miles seemed to mull it over in his head for a minute, before he finally asked "When do we get started?"

Is it weird that that is the exact answer I was expecting? All the same, Flash smiled and said "We just did."