In an alternate world, at the top floor of Spider Tower, Obadiah P. Spider stood before his control panel, using his many arms and eyes to manage several holographic displays at once. Monitoring stock prices, organizing extortions, approving memos, planning drug smuggling routes. A normal day for the head of Spider Corp.

Then suddenly, a phone rang. Not the normal phone – that one went through his secretary – but the red phone on his desk. The emergency phone.

He picked it up. “Obadiah here. … Hm-hm… Hm-hm… Bet yer britches I’ll be there!”

He promptly hung up again. That brief conversation was all he needed. One of his greatest business partners was in trouble, big trouble, the kind that would be ruinous to Spider Corp if left untreated. No application of bribery or armed goons was going to fix this. This was a job for the Spider himself.

“Candace, have the spider jet prepared! I’m heading to the Bermuda portal!” he called to his secretary, before grabbing his top hat and cane, and dashing out of his office.

***

Shortly after, a new portal manifested in the fields surrounding the abandoned fortress. From it emerged a lanky, four-armed man in a business suit, with the face of a giant furry spider. He looked around to see two other men approaching in the distance, hauling a big black box, while a third man was running for the nearby castle, with a bunch of critters at his heels. Was this the cat-summoner who had been listed as one of his allies?

That meant the fight was already starting! Wasting no more time, Obadiah removed the handle of his cane, revealing the slender blade inside. Sword in hand, he started charging towards the castle with great leaping strides, bouncing across the fields 30 feet at a time, aiming to join up with the cat-faced man.