“Where’s the yellow brick road when you need it?”

Gwen mumbled sarcastically under her breath. If this were a sitcom, a laugh track would've accompanied her hilarious quip. She waited a beat as if the universe could hear her over the honking cars below.

But nope, no laughter. Just the sad, busted interface of her dimensional watch blinking up at her. The dial stubbornly stuck on Earth-38. Wherever that was.

Gwen had set the coordinates for Earth-65, and she expected to swing back into her home city using the portal. Instead, she was slingshotted straight into this hellhole—the multiverse’s most dilapidated, depressing city. Her spider senses buzzed the moment she landed on the desolate rooftop.

Gotham was buried in a heavy smog, the haze broken only by flickering street lights and half-dead neon signs. Gwen couldn’t help but try to breathe less as if it would save her from the putrid air.

She crawled up the side of a Wayne Enterprises billboard, her stomach grumbling as she tore open a bag of kale chips (endorsed by Peter Parker ™). The chip was halfway in her mouth when her spine suddenly tingled with danger. The healthy snack was immediately forgotten, as she yanked her mask back down. So much for refuelling.

Crunch!

Gwen tensed, her body coiled like a spring and aimed her wrist at the noise. A web sailed out in a perfect arc, striking an air vent with a faint thwip! A pigeon cooed and flew off, startled. Gwen started to laugh in relief, but the dread didn’t subside. Was it paranoia, or an invisible foe?

“You’re losing it over birds, Gwen.”

Gwen leaped off the Bruce Wayne billboard and landed solidly on the ground, tiptoeing to the edge to peer over the skyline. Great. Strange world, with no friends, and no way home.

The rooftop door flew open.