Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, writers, readers, reviewers, and all others alike, making its big debut into the world of Final Fantasy XIII, its the studio of lyokoMARVELanime! And now, put your hands together for the crossover crafter, the legend maker, I'm talking about none other than the man himself, lyokoMARVELanime!

[audience applause]

AN: Hey everybody, and welcome to the first chapter of my newest story, A Spider's Focus! This is a big deal for me, because not only is it my first crossover story with any title in the Final Fantasy series, it's also my first Spider-Man story, crossover or otherwise. And when I say first Spider-Man story, I mean a story that is solely focused on Spider-Man, and not a MARVEL based story where he's a special guest/supporting character. No, this is literally the first story I've put out there where Spidey is the leading character. And no, Avengers Academy doesn't count, because that's technically an Avengers story that focuses on multiple heroes.

Lightning: Ahem, can you please get on with it?

AN: Oh, right, sorry. Just wanted to make a point. Oh and by the way, please welcome, the leading star lady of FFXIII herself, Lightning Farron!

[audience applause]

Lightning: [just nods to the audience] Are you done yet, or are you actually going to start this thing?

AN: Sheesh. Pushy leading lady. Anyways, please enjoy everyone!

I do not own anything from any Spider-Man or Final Fantasy franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

Chapter 1: Into Cocoon

'Well, this is another fine mess I've gotten myself into,' was the thoughts of a certain young man clad in a red and blue, web-themed suit as he jumped from one rooftop to the next in order to make his way across the strange town he did not know. By day to a vast majority of the world, this man was known as Peter Parker, a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle news industry, but to a select few in the world of costumed crime-fighters, vigilantes, and superheroes, he was known as the friendly neighborhood hero of New York City: Spider-Man. At the moment though, the only thing that Peter felt he could call himself was completely and utterly lost. Why would that be, might you ask? Well for starters, there is the fact that he is in a strange town that he does not know, as previously mentioned, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. If it were just a strange-looking town, it probably would not be much of a problem. He could just find a computer of some kind and look up his current location. Sadly, that was not an option because not only did he not have any civilian clothing on him in order to help him blend in, but he also had not seen one place that looked like a library or anywhere else he could use a computer. Add in the fact that he had seen a number of people who were different from the kind of people he was used to seeing in one way or another, be it in terms of hairstyles or even hair color, or their choice of attire, and Spidey could safely say that he was most likely not anywhere near New York at the moment, because even New York had a limit on people with eccentric fashion senses.

Now the next question you are probably asking is how did Spider-Man, a guy who was born in Queens, has always made New York his home in both his civilian life and hero life, and does not go out on incredible adventures on the same level as groups like the Avengers on a regular basis, end up in this strange place he does not know, and the answer is actually quite the story. It had all actually started as a pretty standard day, or at least as close to one as Peter was able to get ever since he was bitten by that genetically altered spider when he was fifteen; the sun was shining, criminal activity was not too big of a problem, and he was just heading over to the Daily Bugle to pick up a paycheck for his latest Spider-Man photos. To this day, Peter would say that so many people would be jealous of him if they knew that he was making a living off of making what were basically selfies, but that's beside the point, because by the time he was halfway to the Bugle, the whole day had started going downhill, and it all began when every media and broadcast signal was taken over by an old enemy of his: one Otto Octavius, alias Doctor Octopus.

You would think that Doc Ock taking over the airwaves to announce his latest scheme would not be something to be of much trouble, but this time around, it was in fact something that proved to be a threat to the entire world. Octavius was planning to gain domination over the world by manipulating the harmful UV rays of the sun so that the effects of global warming would be sped up to the point where it would kill millions of lives in seconds if he so desired, and as insurance for his plan, he had enlisted the help of some of the worst villains both from Spidey's rouges gallery, and around the world to make sure that it would succeed. Of course, what really had many people concerned was that he implied that he also possessed the means of creating an unstoppable force that would be an even more powerful threat to the world if his plans were stopped, but he did not give any exact details as to what it really was. By the time Octavius' broadcast had ended, a great deal of the world was starting to panic, while Spider-Man was quick to rendezvous with the one group that had the greatest chance of helping him stop the mad-scientist's plan: the Avengers.

Assembling with Earth's mightiest heroes was not the only thing that Spidey did though, because another important thing that he did was trade out his old, yet iconic and faithful red and blue suit for a new one that Tony Stark and Reed Richards had helped him to develop, which was made from the same material as the Fantastic Four's suits. Aside from the way it was made, it was very much similar to Spider-Man's original suit, especially in the sense that it retained his red and blue color scheme, along with the web pattern, but a major change that had to be noted was the fact that the spider-symbols on the front and back were now much larger than they once were, nearly identical to one and other, and were also now colored white. A couple of the Avengers had joked around and said that adding some more white to his suit like that made him look like he was a bit of a Captain America fan-boy, but Spidey just brushed it off and said that they had more important things to worry about than his choice of colors for his new suit, and in no time at all, they were tracking down Octavius to his base of operations.

The only problem with that, was that they had to fight their way through nearly every villain that had signed on with Doc Ock, which many had dubbed as the Sinister Squadron, and that was not an easy task given how many heavy hitters like Rhino, Sandman, Electro, Hydro-Man, Hobgoblin, and even villains like Abomination were standing as part of Octavius' team. Eventually, they did discover the location of Octavius' hideout, but the villains were determined to not let the Avengers get to their boss. It was at this point that things took another dive, as Captain America found himself forced to order Spidey to go after Doc Ock on his own while the Avengers held the rest of the villains off, but only after Spider-Man insisted that he be allowed to do so, since he felt that he was something of an expert on dealing with the scientist who now had four mechanical arms welded onto his back. This was actually a rather accurate fact, but it was not one that Spidey felt very proud of since there was a time when he actually looked up to Octavius, back when he was a good man with a brilliant scientific mind, but there was no time to be dealing with sentimentality, so Spidey buried those feelings and swung into action in order to face-off with his old foe and former idol once again.

Upon arriving in the heart of Octavius' latest secret lab, Spider-Man discovered how the multi-limbed villain was planning to unleash something more devastating than the threat of accelerating global warming to such a great extent, and he did not like it at all. It turned out that Octavius had created a device that would harness the incredible powers of an artifact known as the Tablet of Order and Chaos, and allow him to call upon the various Doc Ocks throughout time and space in order to gain domination over not just his own world, but every world in the multiverse as well. Spider-Man was well aware of just what the tablet was capable of, having gone through an entire adventure to restore it along with three other alternate versions of himself after it was shattered during a battle between him and Mysterio, and given what the self-proclaimed Master of Illusion was able to do with the thing, he did not want to even begin imagining what could be unleashed while it was in Octavius' hands, especially if Doc Ock was unable to really control it. If Octavius did lose control of its power for even a second, then there was a chance that all of reality would be shattered, something that Spider-Man had barely prevented the last time he had encountered the tablet. Despite his attempt to warn Octavius of this, Spider-Man found his words falling on deaf ears, as Doc Ock refused to believe that there was even the slightest chance he could not handle the tablet's power, so Spider-Man was left with no other option but to try and beat some sense into the madman.

What had followed next was nothing short of what Peter honestly could describe as his most intense, serious, and dangerous battle in all of the ten years he had been Spider-Man. Both he and Octavius fought each other with everything they had, and when they no longer had anything left to give, they found something else to throw out until it was also gone, and even then, they still kept at it. Neither one of them were willing to let the other gain the upper hand in their battle, and both were determined to not let the other win, proving that this would likely be remembered as their greatest and possibly final battle, and the one that would prove which one of them was truly the other's better. In the end though, it all really came down to which of them truly wanted it more, and in the end, Spider-Man was the one standing victorious over his defeated foe. It was all for not though, because not more than a few minutes after Octavius was beaten, the machine that Doc Ock was using to control the powers of the Tablet of Order and Chaos suddenly malfunctioned, and the tablet's powers were unleashed in a spectacular, uncontrollable blaze of glory. The only way to stop it from destroying everything, was to somehow shut down the machine, but doing so meant someone had to get close enough to risk getting sucked into the vortex that had now opened up, and likely end up being thrown to some random point in reality or dead.

Spider-Man was quick to leap over to the controls, despite Octavius saying that he would be the one to do it as a way of atoning for what he had done, but Spidey would not hear of it, since he was not willing to let even his greatest enemy die despite what he had done. It was in that moment that Octavius finally saw that Spider-Man was the one who was truly superior between the two of them, a fact he admitted aloud to Peter before he joined the younger man in trying to stop the chaos he had unleashed, thinking that there would be a better chance of them surviving and making it out safely if they were to work together in stopping it. Sadly, that belief was ill-placed, because while they did manage to shut down the machine, they were unable to do anything to prevent themselves from being sucked into the vortex and thrown to parts unknown. Spider-Man had attempted to keep a strong hold on Octavius, but the multi-armed scientist somehow slipped from his grasp as they flew through the nexus between time and space, and it was not long afterwards that he lost sight of Doc Ock completely. The next thing Spidey knew, he was falling from the sky into the town he was now located in, and it was only thanks to a quickly thrown out web-line on the tallest, nearby structure, which turned out to be some kind of archway just a little ways off the shore from what he could only assume was a seaside city that he was able to survive, but just barely.

'So basically, to recap, I saved my world from Doc Ock's wacked out, psycho, crazy-man plan, just to get pulled out of my dimension and thrown to God-only-knows-where, while Doc Ock is either lost between dimensions or stranded in another dimension as well, and I have no clue if I'm even in my dimension or how to get back home. Yeah, this is definitely one of those days that I wish I had stayed in bed,' Spidey thought to himself as he landed on the next rooftop that was in the path of his journey through the strange town. He then paused for a minute as a new thought occurred to him. 'So if I have no idea where to go from here, then why the heck am I still moving around like I know where I'm going?'

Spidey was not really expecting an answer to his question, but before anyone or anything could begin to give him some form of answer, he caught sight of something down below him on the streets, or rather someone. The person in question was a young woman that he assumed was probably close to his age, with pink hair, and dressed in a brown, turtleneck shirt, a sleeveless, white jacket, a green metallic pauldron on her left shoulder, tan shorts, black fingerless gloves, and black boots that reached her knees. He could also see that the woman had a red bag strapped to her left leg, and a large black case hanging down from her belt, but what really threw him for a loop was the long red cape that she wore on her left shoulder. Now do not misunderstand, Spidey had seen plenty of people wearing capes in his line of work, but he had never seen someone like this woman wearing one like it was casual wear. Aside from her appearance, Spidey could also see that the woman had a very toned, athletic body, and even from here, he could feel a vibe coming off of her that he normally only felt around people like Black Widow.

'Guess that would explain why no one is trying to mess with her even at this time of night,' Spidey thought to himself as he watched her go by. He may not know exactly what time it was at the moment, but given the dark, star-lit sky, and how a good majority of the area seemed to be devoid of any other people besides him and the woman on the street, he could only assume that it was a rather late hour. 'Whoops; spoke too soon,' he then found himself thinking just a few seconds later when he saw a small group of people start moving to intercept the woman, and he did not need his trusted Spider-Sense to know that these men were not likely the friendly kind of people. 'Guess it's time I get acquainted with the locals. And who knows, maybe I can get some help from her after saving her life.'

Spider-Man knew it would be wrong of him to think like that, since it basically made it seem like he would be saving this woman just so he could get some help, but he was getting desperate for answers at this point. Besides, even if he was not, he would still be doing something to help this woman. After all, like his late Uncle Ben had always said, with great power comes great responsibility. With that in mind, Spidey quickly swung into action.

It had been a rather long day for Lightning Farron, but not because of work. No, the thing that had been occupying her thoughts for the most part was actually her sister, Serah. For the past few days, her younger sibling had been rather quiet and somewhat distant, even when Lightning was around, and given that she was something of an expert on being distant, Lightning knew what she was talking about when she said that. The fact that such a bright, cheery girl like Serah was acting so different would be reason enough for concern, but earlier today, she found out that Serah had also been acting rather distant towards her idiot boyfriend, Snow Villiers as well after she ran into Snow's little gang, NORA during one of her patrols on the town's borders. Said run in with the gang of kids and her sister's overly happy and optimistic boyfriend was also a contributing factor to Lightning's current mood, but that was only a small contributing factor to her irritation, for lack of a better word. After finally getting off the clock for the day, Lightning was really looking forward to just getting home and crashing on either her couch or her bed in an attempt to just sleep it all off and hope that it would all be better by the following morning, but clearly life had other plans for her, much to her added annoyance.

She had noticed the thugs that were now approaching her earlier from the corner of her eye, and had already deemed them as barely even a minor threat, to her at least, but the fact that they were now following her, likely expecting her to run scared or something, was really not what she needed right now. After going a few more paces forward without the punks taking a hint and leaving, Lightning finally turned around and leveled them with a small glare, and asked, "Can I help you with something?"

"Oh, I'm sure you can help us with a few things, baby," the closest thug replied while he grinned darkly with the rest of his friends, clearly not picking up on the dangerous aura that Lightning was now starting to give off.

Lightning just rolled her eyes a bit at the rather rude remark before she said, "Yeah, I probably could. For starters, I could help you all to the hospital if you decide you really want to do this."

"What did you say, bitch," another thug snarled.

"I think we need to teach her some manners," the third one in the group suggested as they all started moving towards her, none of them ever once noting how Lightning was starting to drop into a fighting stance.

Before anything else could happen, a new voice suddenly cut in that caused everyone to stop what they were doing. "If you ask me, I think she would be the better option of teaching someone manners, because you guys clearly don't have any at all," the voice said, its tone bright and cheerful despite the rather dangerous atmosphere. "Seriously guys, if you're gonna go and stalk a woman at night and then pretty much threaten her while making it clear you have no good intentions, don't say that you're going to teach anyone manners."

"Who's there," the leader of the thugs demanded, his hand already pulling out a gun while the rest of his crew were stepping back and looking around to find the person who had spoken. His answer came when what appeared to be a web suddenly shot down and pulled his gun away while a figure dropped down on the ground between Lightning and the thugs after the weapon had disappeared from everyone's sight. When they all saw the person in question, they were a bit surprised to see a man clad in a tight, red and blue suit with a giant, white spider on his back and chest, and when the man looked up, the thugs could have sworn that they saw the large white eyes on his mask narrow a little as he looked at them. This man, unknown to Lightning or her pathetic excuse for attackers was none other than Spider-Man.

"So, you guys want to try and make excuses as to why you're harassing the nice lady over there, or do you want to just skip to the part where I say that there are two ways we can do this," Spider-Man asked. When no one answered him, Spidey just glanced around for a minute before he finally asked, "What, too stunned by my overwhelming levels of amazing to speak?"

"Aw, isn't that cute? A little clown thinks he's some big-shot hero," one of the bigger thugs mocked.

"Hey, about those two ways we can do this, is one of them the easy way," the second one to have spoken asked.

"Well, I'm not gonna lie to you fellas. No, none of the ways we can do this is the easy way," Spider-Man replied. "In point of fact, your options are either giving up and trying to run away like little girls only to end up getting the crap beaten out of you by me, or try to fight and get the crap beaten out of you by me. Either way, I'm gonna beat the crap out of you, so I think you can see where this is going."

Lightning was not sure what to make of this whole situation. One minute she was being annoyed by these punks who thought they could be a threat to her, the next minute this stranger in red and blue just appears out of nowhere after disarming their leader, and now that same stranger was talking like he was actually going to be able to beat all of these guys on his own. On one hand, she would probably be a little impressed by his sudden entrance and how he had disarmed the thug, but on the other hand, he seemed to be about as cocky as Snow, and so far, talked just about as much, which give her ample reason to be annoyed with him. The thugs he was facing on the other hand, had already made up their minds on what to think about him, and that was the fact that they did not like him at all.

"Get him," the leader of the thugs shouted and in no time at all, they were all charging at Spider-Man in an attempt to attack him. The keyword being "attempt", because despite having him outnumbered, none of the thugs seemed like they were able to land a hit on the web-head, and he did not even seem to really be trying.

"Seriously? 'Get him'? Is that really the best you've got," Spider-Man questioned as he easily leaned from side to side to side-step the first few attacks, until he finally just jumped over the fourth thug in the group. "I mean, I go out of my way to make you guys famous Spider-perps, and you can't even be bothered to be a little more original than that? I'm a little disappointed."

Aside from getting angrier, the thugs did not seem to pay any mind to Spider-Man's words, and just continued their attempts to harm him, only for each and every one of them to end up being in vain as Spider-Man dodged them all without any trouble. Eventually, Spider-Man did strike back, and it was to knock the largest of the thugs into a nearby wall with a hard kick to the back, and said thug soon found that he would be staying there after Spidey had tied him down to the wall with his signature webs. Seeing one of their biggest guys taken out like that drew the rest of the thugs to draw their weapons, most of them being guns while the leader just drew a knife from his jacket, and the minute that the guns were out, they opened fire on the web-head. Lightning would have shouted a warning to him, but for some reason, her voice did not seem to work. Thankfully, no warning was needed, because Spider-Man easily flipped up into the air, and was soon twisting and turning around so that none of the shots landed on him. It was not entirely painless though, like it usually was, because he could still feel a few slight aches from where he had incurred some more serious injuries in his fight with Doc Ock, but Spidey ignored it all and managed to evade the shots that were being fired at him until he finally came to rest on the side of the wall.

"Okay, now you're starting to do a little better," Spider-Man complimented, mockingly. "See, now you're actually giving me a reason to really use my amazing spider-powers. Maybe not to a great extent, but at least you're trying."

Seeing Spider-Man perched on the side of a building like that shocked the thugs and Lightning a great deal, but only the leader of the thugs was able to say anything. "What the hell are you? Some kind of soldier?"

Even with his mask, it was obvious that Spider-Man was giving the crook a deadpan look when he next spoke. "Really? Do you seriously think I'm a soldier? Come on, a soldier in a skin-tight red and blue, web-themed suit with a giant spider on his chest? Wow, you're doing a swell job at showing how you're the brains of this outfit."

"Will you just shut the hell up, you mother fu…" the leader started to say only to have his mouth suddenly webbed shut by Spider-Man.

"Now, now, watch the mouth. In case you've forgotten, we're in the presence of a lady," Spider-Man reprimanded like a parent scolding their child.

The minute that Spider-Man had said that, Lightning was brought back into the moment, and she did not hesitate to jump into action. None of the thugs saw her coming before she had landed a hard hit into their leader's gut that was soon followed by a left cross and a spin kick that sent him flying across the street, leaving each of the remaining thugs and Spider-Man to just gape in shock at what had just happened. Spider-Man was the first to come out of his shock, seeing as this was not the first time he had seen a beautiful woman take down some punk like that, and he immediately leaped down from his perch and snagged a pair of the remaining thugs with his webs as he spun through the air. After landing on the ground again, Spider-Man immediately pulled on the web-lines that he had snagged the thugs with, and said punks were soon flying through the air into the wall that Spider-Man was facing, falling unconscious the minute that they hit said wall.

"You really shouldn't let yourselves get distracted by a beautiful woman kicking someone's butt like that. I don't…well, not anymore," Spider-Man quipped as he easily dodged a strike from one of the last few thugs. Lightning was handling the other one on her own well enough, but for Spidey, this whole fight was starting to drag on a little, so he soon flipped over his current opponent, and snagged the one Lightning was fighting with a web-line before pulling him into his last, conscious friend, knocking them both to the ground when they collided with each other. Just as the two were starting to rise up, they found their efforts halted when Spider-Man shot out more webs to keep them both tied down on the ground before he knocked them both out with a swift hit to their heads.

"Aw, look at 'em. They're all tuckered out," Spider-Man cooed in one final jest for the fight before turning his attention to the pink haired woman who was now staring at him with a very serious, even gaze. "Not to worry, Miss. These guys won't be bothering you anymore, but would you mind calling the cops to come pick them up for me? This suit doesn't really come with pockets," Spider-Man informed her. Lightning said nothing in response to this, but instead just continued staring at him with that same look on her face, immediately drawing Spider-Man's concern up a few notches. "Uh…Miss, are you okay? I know I'm amazing; spectacular even, but I was sure that my shock-and-awe levels had dropped down from inducing stunned silences a few years ago."

This time, Lightning did give a response, but not one that Spider-Man was expecting. Instead, she just narrowed her eyes a little more, and then slugged him across the face. Since he was not expecting the blow, Spidey ended up stumbling a little, but he still managed to remain standing as he turned his gaze back to the pink haired woman. "Hey, what was that for," Spider-Man demanded. 'And why didn't my Spider-Sense warn me that was coming,' he added in his head.

"For getting in the middle of something that didn't concern you. I had that perfectly under control before you showed up," Lightning replied with a bit more of an edge in her tone than she had probably meant.

"Well excuse me for just doing my friendly neighbor duty and helping out someone who seemed to be in trouble," Spider-Man easily quipped while he rubbed the side of his face, wondering just how strong this woman was. "Seriously, do you always thank people who help you out like that, or am I just special?"

Lightning's eye twitched a little in response to this even as she demanded, "Who are you?"

Spider-Man dropped his hand down at this before he remarked, "Does nobody understand the concept of the mask nowadays? Seriously, I know that most heroes don't have them, but some of us do wish to keep a secret identity, thank you very much."

Spidey's mini-rant was halted from going any further when he suddenly found a rather strange sword being held at his throat by the woman he just rescued. "I'm not going to ask again, so either shut up or tell me a name before I decide to run my gunblade through you."

"Alright, alright! Just calm down, Pinkie," Spidey replied as he raised his hands in mock surrender before trying to push the tip of the gunblade aside with a finger.

The gunblade did not stay away from him for very long, as Lightning was soon redirecting it right back at his neck as she moved closer so that she was right in his face. "My hair is not pink. It's rose colored," she snarled.

"My bad," Spider-Man immediately stated. He then glanced down at their current positions and said, "Uh…would you mind stepping back a little, or are you trying to tell me that this is all just you're very strange way of asking if you can give me a thank-you kiss?"

For the first time in years, Lightning's face actually lit up in a small blush as she immediately moved back and turned away from the web-head so that she could attempt to regain control of herself. Once she was sure that she had done so, she looked back and silently told him to answer her question. "Well, to answer your question, I think it should be pretty obvious who I am," Spidey finally replied. When Lightning just continued glaring at him, he took that to mean that she wanted to hear the words from his mouth, and said, "Come on, the suit and the webs weren't enough of a give-away? I'm Spider-Man."

"You're who," Lightning immediately questioned with a raised eyebrow. She was beginning to wonder just how sane this guy really was.

"Spider-Man," Peter repeated. "You know; the amazing, spectacular, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? One of the world's most popular crime fighters? The guy who does whatever a spider can? Any of this ringing a bell?"

"No," was the simple reply that Lightning gave.

"Seriously," Spider-Man asked. When Lightning's expression did not change, he just sighed tiredly before turning things around. "You know what, whatever. It's my turn to ask some questions, if you don't mind. Just bear with me and try to keep an open mind, please, because some of them may seem a little strange."

"Said the guy who claims his name is Spider-Man," Lightning pointed out with crossed arms.

"Harsh, but while we're on the topic of names, mind if I ask what yours is," Spider-Man easily returned.

"Lightning."

Spider-Man just stared for a minute at the simple answer the rose-haired woman gave him, before he finally said, "Really? You're giving me a hard time about my name, and then you go and tell me that you're name is supposed to be Lightning?"

"That is my name," Lightning practically snarled.

"Yeah, and I'm multi-billion dollar CEO of a major tech company. Get it? I'm being sarcastic," Spider-Man retorted. Lightning's glare seemed to intensify a little at that, immediately telling Spidey to change the subject right away. "Okay, so first possibly strange questions, what planet is this and how close is it to Earth, or Terra, or whatever you would call it?"

That earned him an odd look from Lightning, but she still answered anyways. "You're on the world of Cocoon, which floats directly above Pulse. As for the second part of your question, I've never heard of a world called Earth or Terra."

"Great," Spider-Man drawled. "Okay, so by any chance, is there a city known as New York around here, or any place known as Stark Industries or something similar to that?"

"No," was the next simple reply from Lightning, all the while, her questioning of this man's sanity continued to grow more and more. "Anything else?"

"Nope, that's just about it, so nice meeting you, Lightning, even though you did hit me, but I've gotta get going now," Spider-Man said, and he then turned to leave. What he did not expect was that he would end up turning in a bad way, and ultimately putting a bit of pressure on the injury he had sustained to his leg at some point during his fight with Doc Ock. The minute he did, he was unable to keep himself from falling to one knee as he attempted to suppress a grunt of pain from rising, even as he registered just how much his side was hurting from when one of Ock's tentacles had hit him there.

Lightning would have had to be blind and deaf to not notice any of this happen right in front of her, and since it did, she was immediately putting aside any questions on whether or not this "Spider-Man" was crazy and became far more concerned about his wellbeing, physically. "Are you alright," Lightning immediately asked as she moved to try and help him.

"Yeah, I'm fine, really. Just a few small injuries I got from an earlier fight, but it's nothing too bad. I heal fast, so I can just sleep it off," Spidey waved off.

Lightning was not going to buy that though, especially since Spider-Man immediately fell back down to his knees again after he tried to stand up. "Here," she said as she grabbed one of his arms and lifted it over her shoulder so that he could lean on her when they both stood up.

"Uh, what're you doing," Spider-Man asked, completely befuddled.

"Just come on," Lightning said as she helped him along.

"Sure, but where are you taking me?"

"My place. I was actually on my way home when this whole mess started, and even if there are any doctor's offices open at this time of night, I get the feeling you wouldn't go to any of them," Lightning stated.

"Well yeah, but that's mostly because I don't know my way around this city…whatever it's called," Spider-Man admitted. "But aside from that, why are you taking me, a random guy in a spider-suit that you just met and probably think is crazy to your place?"

'So he picked up on that,' Lightning noted in reference to when Spidey mentioned that she had been thinking he was crazy. She put aside though and instead answered, "Because I have a first-aid kit at home that we could use to patch you up."

Spider-Man said nothing in response to that, but instead just nodded and allowed his unexpected new companion to help him along to the place she called home, all the while suppressing any urges to make a joke about the whole situation.

Getting to Lightning's place of residence did not take very long, and as a result, the rose-haired woman was soon dropping Spider-Man on her couch while she retrieved the first-aid kit she had mentioned earlier. While she was doing that, Spidey took the chance to look around the place, and from what he could see, it was actually quite nice, especially in comparison to the apartment that he currently lived in, if you could really call that dingy, little place an apartment. One thing that really caught his attention though was a small picture that was sitting on a nearby table, which held an image of Lightning standing next to another girl that looked a lot like her with a bright smile on her face.

"Nice place," Spidey commented when Lightning finally came back with the first-aid kit.

Lightning just silently nodded in thanks as she opened the kit, which from what Spidey saw, was packed with a lot more than a typical home-kept first-aid kit. "I'll need you to take off your shirt," Lightning suddenly said, getting right to business.

At that point, Spider-Man could no longer stop himself. "Wow, guess I should've figured you move pretty fast considering your name, but I didn't think it was that fast. You should at least buy me dinner first."

That joke earned the web-head a hard punch to the gut from Lightning as her face turned pink for the second time that night alone. "J-just shut up and do it!"

"Ow! Okay, okay! No need to hit the injured superhero," Spider-Man groaned, and he quickly obliged Lightning's earlier request while be careful enough to make sure that his mask would not be pulled off along with his shirt.

The minute that Spider-Man's shirt had been fully removed, Lightning had to stop and stare, but not for the reasons you might think. Yes, she could see that he was actually rather fit, but she was able to tell that even before he had removed his shirt, considering that his suit was skin tight. The real reason that she had stopped and stared was because of the fact that she could see that whatever injuries he had taken in the earlier fight he had mentioned were not the only ones he had, because she easily spotted a few faint scars on him as well. Some of them were really not that noticeable to the average person, mostly due to the fact that they had faded quite a bit over time, but to a well-trained soldier like her, they were still quite noticeable indeed. Shaking it off, Lightning quickly grabbed the necessary bandages from the kit and started wrapping them around Spider-Man's torso. "I know you said you were in a serious fight earlier, but how did you get so many scars like these," Lightning eventually asked when she was halfway done.

Spider-Man gave a humorless chuckle and said, "Well, that's what happens when you've been swinging around, fighting bad guys, saving lives, and doing everything else I've been doing for about ten years."

"Ten years," Lightning gasped in shock. After getting a nod in confirmation, Lightning immediately asked a follow-up question. "If you've been around for that long, then how come I've never heard of you until now?"

"Uh…would you believe me if I told you I was from another universe," Spider-Man asked. Lightning just leveled him with another look, to which Spider-Man responded, "Of course not, but whether you believe it or not doesn't matter, because that's the honest truth. You see, that fight I mentioned that I had been in earlier, had actually been an attempt to stop my archenemy, Doctor Octopus, who was planning to use a very dangerous artifact to bring alternate versions of himself to our universe, and sometime during our fight, he lost control of it. I tried to help him get control of it before it destroyed our world, and we did succeed, but as a result, we were both pulled into the vortex that had opened up. Next thing I know, I'm falling into this city and then I basically just wandered around trying to figure out where I was until I ran into you."

Both of the two individuals were silent for a minute, letting Spider-Man's story sink in, until Lightning finally broke the silence once more. "I think I should check to see if you have a head injury or something," the soldier stated as she reached for his mask, but she ended up jumping a little in surprise when Spider-Man's hand suddenly shot up and grabbed her wrist just as she was about to brush the mask's fabric.

"Yeah sorry, but I can't let you do that," Spider-Man apologized.

"Why not," Lightning questioned with slowly narrowing eyes.

"Because I've got a secret identity to keep, remember?"

"But if you're really from another universe, then for all you know, you don't even exist here, so there wouldn't be a problem," Lightning immediately pointed out.

"Uh…good point," Spidey admitted. "But still, I'd rather not. It's nothing personal, but I just don't feel comfortable revealing my secret identity to someone that I literally just met a few minutes ago."

It was clear that the web-head was going to be stubborn about this, but Lightning was not going to have any of that. "Take it off."

"No," Spider-Man immediately replied.

"Take it off."

"Nope."

"Take. The mask. Off. Now."

"Hmm, let me think about it for…No!"

Lightning huffed in frustration, having already nearly lost a lot of her patience with this man, but she quickly took a deep breath to calm herself down, and said, "Okay, how about if I promised not to tell anyone who you really are? Will you take the mask off then?"

Spider-Man started to reply, but then paused for a moment to think about this. When he finally seemed to reach a decision, he looked Lightning straight in the eye and said, "Are you sure about that? If you make that promise that means that you can't tell anyone. Not your friends, not your coworkers, not your best friend, not even your family unless I say it's okay. You're going to have to swear it."

Lightning met Spider-Man's gaze with a hard look of her own and said, "Fine, I swear on my mother's grave I won't tell anyone who you really are unless you say it's okay. Happy?"

"Delighted," Spider-Man replied, making a small note of Lightning's words as he did. He then hesitantly reached for his mask, trying Lightning's nerves a little as he did since she was not entirely sure if he was being deliberately slow just to annoy her, until finally, he pulled the mask off, revealing his brown hair, and kind face with brown eyes to her. "Hi, I'm Peter Parker, and I've been Spider-Man since I was fifteen years old."

Lightning just gaped in honest surprise. She had assumed that he would be a little younger, but he looked like he was barely that much older than her, a fact that she figured was most likely true when she remembered that he said he had been Spider-Man for ten years and added that information to what he had just revealed. Of course, she was soon stirred from her thoughts when Peter started feeling a little uncomfortable with all of her staring and asked, "Uh…do I have something on my face?"

Lightning shook her head a bit to regain her senses and said, "Sorry. I just wasn't expecting you to be so…young, now or when you started…whatever you would call this."

"You mean being a superhero," Peter smirked.

Lightning just scoffed in response to this and muttered, "And now you're back to reminding me of my sister's idiot boyfriend."

That got Peter's attention, and he quickly glanced between Lightning and the photo he noticed earlier before he asked, "Is that who the girl in the picture with you is?"

"Yeah," Lightning nodded. "That's Serah."

"Huh. She kinda looks like you. You know, if you were to smile a little more," Peter joked.

Lightning just grumbled something under her breath in response to that before she quickly grabbed Peter's head and started doing all of the usual checks for any signs of a head injury. "Well, looks like you're head is alright, at least physically, but that doesn't mean there isn't still a chance that you're crazy," Lightning admitted after a minute before she resumed bandaging Peter's other injuries.

"Uh, I swing around on a thin, web-line that's stronger than steel, in a skin-tight red and blue suit, and fight supervillains and bad guys for free. I'm pretty sure that's a good sign of whether or not I might be crazy," Peter joked in response.

Lightning just rolled her eyes and then finally finished bandaging Peter up, placed everything she had been using back in the first-aid kit, and then stood to put the kit away. "Hey, thanks for helping me out like this," Peter said as Lightning was doing all of this. "Uh…do you have a computer I could use?"

Lightning just nodded over to where the device he had requested was as a way of saying go for it, and Peter immediately went to work looking up everything he needed find. It was not long after that though that Lightning heard Peter mumbling something about her computer being impressive enough to make someone named Stark jealous, but that was soon followed by him groaning and grunting in frustration, and she soon found that she could not help but go over and see what was bothering him so much. "What? Checking to make sure that you didn't ruin someone's life by telling me your 'secret identity'," Lightning inquired.

"Actually, I already did that and found out that you were right in saying that as far as your world is concerned, 'Peter Parker' doesn't exist. It's everything I've run on a search on afterwards that has me getting worked up," Peter admitted before he finally moved away from the computer in defeat. "Not only do you guys not have so much as a Manhattan, let alone New York or even Queens, but you don't even have a Stark Industries, Baxter Building, or Horizon Labs. No Tony Stark, no Reed Richards, no Doctor Strange, and no anybody who's going to be able to help me get back home, at least in regards to people I know!"

"Why can't you just figure out a way to do it on your own," Lightning asked, clearly still humoring Spidey in regards to his claim about being from another dimension. "I mean, if you were smart enough to figure out how to keep that device of this Doctor Octopus' from blowing up your world, then can't you figure out a way to get yourself home?"

"Sure, if I was a mega genius with several million dollars to my name," Peter pointed out. "But in case you haven't noticed, the only things I have on me are my spider-suit, my web shooters, and the digital camera that's safely tucked away in my belt. And let's not forget the fact that even if I did have my wallet on me, I'm pretty sure that my money wouldn't be any good around here."

Lightning may have thought that this guy was probably insane, but she did have to admit that he made a few good points. He certainly could not go around town dressed in that ridiculous costume all the time if he did not want to stand out to any great extent, and even without his crazy story about being from another dimension, it did seem rather obvious that he did not have any money on him; she found out he had not been kidding when he said that his suit did not have pockets as she was bandaging him up. Even if he did have any money on him, there was not likely to be any hotels or anything like that open at this hour, so begrudgingly, there was only one thing that she could really see for her to do now. "Wait here for a minute," she said before she stepped out of the room.

Before he could even ask what she was doing, Peter found that Lightning was already gone, and he was left on his own at her computer. Of course, he was not left alone for very long, as Lightning soon came back with a blanket under one arm and a set of clothes in her other hand that she immediately tossed to him. "You can wear these until we find you something else to wear. They're some of my father's old clothes, and unfortunately for you, they're also the only clothes we own that are meant for a boy," Lightning explained before she walked over to the couch.

"Uh…what," was all Peter could say as he caught the clothes that were just thrown at him and looked between them and Lightning.

"Also, I don't have a guest room, so you'll have to settle for the couch for right now," Lightning continued on as though Peter had not said anything.

"Okay, whoa, whoa, hold on a minute," Peter then said. "You've already done enough by patching me up; I can't ask you to let me spend the night here or something."

"Too bad, because the way I see it, the only other option you have is to sleep on the street, and I can't really let you do that," Lightning retorted after turning to face him, daring him to argue with her.

"If it makes you feel better, I wouldn't really be sleeping on the streets. I'd more than likely be sleeping in a web-hammock or something," Peter replied, half-seriously. When Lightning's expression remained unchanged, he then added, "Besides, what about your family? Don't you think they'd have something against you letting some random guy you just met sleep on your couch without telling them?"

"Serah's currently out with her boyfriend, Snow, and she probably won't be back until later tonight. By that time, she'll probably be too tired to really notice you, even if you're not wearing something to hide that onesie of yours," Lightning immediately replied.

"It's not a onesie," Peter shot back, slightly annoyed. "And besides, what about your parents? Don't you think they'd have something to say about this, since you're obviously still living with them?"

"My parents are dead," Lightning revealed, her tone just oozing with anger at having the subject brought up. That shut Peter up, and Lightning took that to mean that he was starting to pity her, which she did not want or need from him. "Hey, before you go apologizing, don't bother. I don't need your pity."

"I was only going to apologize for bringing it up, and it wouldn't be out of pity. It's actually because I can relate to that," Peter revealed, drawing a confused look from Lightning. "I lost my parents, too. They had left for some kind of business thing when I was really little and died on the flight over. I spent the next few years being raised by my aunt and uncle, until my uncle was killed when I was fifteen."

If Peter's revelation about how he had been Spider-Man since he was fifteen, and that he had been doing it for ten years was a surprise to Lightning, then this was definitely a jaw-dropper, because she had not expected that at all. "So…you don't have any other family aside from your aunt," she then asked, with a surprising amount of hesitance for her part.

"Yep. She's probably worried sick about me by now," Peter mused, partly to Lightning and partly to himself. "I'm guessing Serah's the only family you have left too, right?"

"Yeah," Lightning nodded.

The air became a lot heavier from that moment, both of them wondering if they should try to say something in order to ease the sorrow that had now fallen amongst them. After several awkward minutes, which seemed to be more like a lifetime, Peter finally said, "Well, if you really think it's for the best, then I guess it would be wrong of me to argue, right?"

"Yeah, that is unless you're uncomfortable with it," Lightning replied, wondering why she was suddenly less confident in her chosen course of action. She was always confident in her decisions, so why should this be any different?

"No, it's uh…it's fine. I'd just hate to think that I might be imposing or anything," Peter reassured her.

"You wouldn't be."

"…Okay then," Peter nodded, finally agreeing to Lightning's offer. He then retrieved the shirt for his Spider-Man suit and easily slipped on the clothes Lightning had offered him on over said suit. "Thanks again, Lightning, but I still have to ask if there's any chance you're going to tell me your real name since I told you mine?"

"Nope, not a chance at all," Lightning stated. "And you're welcome. Guess I'll see you in the morning if you get up before I have to go to work."

"I guess so," Peter quietly replied as Lightning departed for her own room, leaving him to situate himself on the couch for the night, making sure that any part of his costume that was not covered by his borrowed outfit was concealed beneath the blanket. As he finally drifted off to sleep, he could not help but think once again, 'What the thwip have you gotten yourself into this time, Parker?'

AN: Well, that was definitely an awkward way to wrap up both the night and a first meeting. First prize for that goes to Peter "Spider-Man" Parker and Lightning Farron!

[audience laugh]

Okay, so getting serious here, I'm sure you've all noticed by now, but I'm going to go ahead and say it anyway. This story's Spider-Man, like the Spidey of many different Spider-Man fanfictions, has a mix of various elements from different Spider-Man series. Don't worry, his power set is still the basic stuff that you're used to seeing, web shooters and such, but I'm really referring to some of his history and design. As far as his appearance goes, the Spider-Man suit is actually that of the one we've seen that he will be wearing in the upcoming Spider-Man PS4 game. I know a lot of people are not too big on it, and I actually wasn't either at first, but after thinking about it for a while and getting a few more looks at it, I found that it kinda started to grow on me a little. It's a nice new original take on the classic Spidey suit, so why not give it a chance?

Anyways, moving on to Spidey-History 101: Yeah, Spider-Man got his powers when he was fifteen, and we have the typical origin story for him, a lot of his big villains have come into conflict with him, there was a time when he was in a relationship with Gwen Stacy, then came that fateful face-off with Green Goblin that Gwen died during, Spider-Man eventually joined the Avengers as a part-timer, there was an adventure that was pretty much this story's incarnation of Shattered Dimensions, and then, as you saw at the beginning of this story, it all led up to an interpretation of the Ends of the Earth story line from the comics. And that's the basic summary, so I hope that satisfies a lot of people's curiosity for now.

Also, yes, Spidey is a little older than Lightning in this story, but only by about four years or so, give or take. I've mentioned before that I like the younger versions of Spidey, and I did not want to go with the version from the comics that was like 30-something, so yeah, he's experienced a lot in his ten years as a hero. Plus, I also wanted Spidey and Lightning to be as close to the same age as possible in this little epic. I'm sure you can all probably guess why.

As for where this story starts off on the FFXIII side of things, this would actually be somewhere around the night of Day 7, you know, the day when Serah told Snow she had become a Pulse L'Cie. I had originally wanted it to start just a little before the Thirteen Days, but I figured that it would be better this way, partly because we'd get to the main story of the game a bit sooner, which would be when things really start to get interesting.

Lightning: Interesting how?

AN: Sorry Light, but not even you are gonna get anything out of me in the way of spoilers, and before to try to threaten it out of me, keep in mind, that I do have a number of crazy gags to protect myself and keep others from giving away spoilers.

The only spoilers I will give away though are the ones you are about to see after I say three simple words. Onto the Preview!...

The next morning sees Peter meeting both Serah and Snow, and the two are quick to bring the web-head on a tour of Bodhum while they help him with getting better outfitted for living on Cocoon. Thankfully, Peter is a few steps ahead in thinking up a good cover story, but when trouble suddenly hits the streets with Serah being dragged right into the middle of it, the people of Cocoon and Bodhum will soon find themselves officially meeting New York's friendly neighborhood hero. See what happens in this series of first encounters next time.

Yep, we're in for quite the excitement next time. Until then though...

Please read and review, and swing on back for next time, fellow true believers!

Spider-Man: Really? "Swing on back for next time"? That's the best you've got?

AN: Ah like you're one to talk Mister "Hey Everyone".

Spider-Man: Touche.