They thought they'd found a blank slate.
Field Alpha was supposed to be untouched—a buried space hidden from the world, waiting to be shaped into something of their own.
But on the second full day of clearing rubble, Gwen found something that didn't belong.
It was wedged between two cracked pipes, half-buried under a mound of gravel and old wiring. She had to pry it loose with her web-shooter tip. A thin, rusted strip of metal clattered into her gloved hand.
At first, it just looked like debris.
A broken nameplate, maybe.
But then she flipped it over.
Etched on the underside was a barely legible Oscorp logo.
Not surprising on its own. Oscorp had built a lot of New York's older understructure—drainage tunnels, support beams, old utility hubs.
But below the logo, in small, fading lettering, were the words:
NODE-0 // PHASE ECHO (CLASSIFIED)
Gwen felt a chill move up her spine. Not the spider-sense kind. Something more ancient. Something human.
She glanced over her shoulder.
Luffy was setting up their lighting grid across the chamber. He hadn't noticed.
Quietly, Gwen slipped the plate into her backpack and said nothing.
Signs
The deeper they dug into Field Alpha's layers, the less "abandoned" it felt.
Luffy was the first to notice the carvings—strange, faint grooves etched into the concrete pillars. At first glance, they looked like damage. Cracks. Age. But as the dust cleared, the marks grew more deliberate. Some looked like initials. Others, like symbols. Curves and lines that didn't belong.
One pillar had what looked like a spider with a broken leg. Another had a scratched circle surrounding a stylized eye.
"This place has history," Luffy said quietly, brushing a finger across one of the deeper marks.
Gwen crouched beside a wall and tapped on a rusted steel panel.
It echoed differently than the walls around it.
"Hollow," she muttered.
They both paused.
Luffy stepped closer. "How hollow?"
"Let's find out."
The Hatch
It took them almost two hours to pry the panel open.
Behind it, buried beneath layers of soot and broken machinery, they found a small service shaft barely wide enough for one of them to crawl through. Gwen volunteered—of course—and slipped inside with a flashlight clamped between her teeth.
A few minutes later, she called out: "Luffy! There's something down here!"
He scrambled after her.
At the end of the shaft was a sealed metal case, half-sunk in old mud. Gwen had already pulled it loose and set it on a cracked concrete slab.
It wasn't locked.
Inside:– A corroded Oscorp power cell– Three warped data sticks– A shattered visor headset– And a small, yellowed note
Gwen picked it up with trembling fingers.
They lied. This isn't a lab. It's a filter. Phase Echo is more than mutation. It's frequency. It's choice. If you're reading this… it probably chose you too.
Luffy read over her shoulder.
His face didn't change.
But something in his eyes did.
Puzzle Pieces
They laid the contents out on a plastic tarp under the overhead lights.
None of the data sticks worked. When Gwen tried plugging one into her diagnostic tablet, it shorted out the screen completely. The visor had a cracked lens and a dead connection port.
"What kind of tech is this?" she whispered.
"Old Oscorp," Luffy said. "Before their public rebranding."
Gwen traced the edge of the visor with her thumb.
"Why leave this here? Why not destroy it?"
"Maybe they couldn't," Luffy said. "Or maybe they left it behind on purpose."
She frowned. "For who?"
He met her gaze. "For us?"
Gwen wanted to laugh. Scoff. Call it ridiculous.
But she didn't.
Because deep down, she felt it too.
This wasn't random.
It was a trail.
Frequency and Fear
That night, they sat at the far edge of the chamber, a single lantern casting flickering shadows against the wall.
Luffy stared into the darkness like it was about to speak.
Gwen twirled her pen in silence before finally flipping open the Power Journal.
She added a new page:
Field Alpha – Discoveries
NODE-0 metal tag
Pre-programmed visor tech
Unknown writing/symbols
Note confirming: "Phase Echo = filter"
She stopped. Tapped her pen against the paper.
Then wrote:
"This place isn't just shelter. It was meant to find someone. Maybe not us. Maybe not originally. But now… we're inside something bigger than training."
Luffy didn't respond.
After a long pause, he finally said: "What if Oscorp didn't just make the spider?"
Gwen looked up.
"What if they made the moment it bit you?"
The silence was louder than any answer.
Oscorp – Below the Surface
Miles away, beneath Oscorp Tower, a low humming filled the air in a sub-level chamber lit only by console glow.
A tech analyst stared at a flickering screen. The display showed scrambled logs, location spikes, and a blinking red icon:
NODE-0 // CACHE DISTURBANCE DETECTED
The analyst turned to a tall man in a gray coat standing behind him.
"Node Zero's cache was tripped," he said.
The man didn't flinch. His eyes narrowed, calculating.
"By who?"
"Unknown. Multiple digital echoes. Manual interaction confirmed."
The man studied the data for a moment, then smiled.
"No response," he said. "Not yet."
The analyst blinked. "You're not worried?"
"I'm curious." The man folded his hands behind his back. "Let's see what they become."
Final Thoughts
Back in Field Alpha, Gwen lay in her sleeping bag near the back wall, sketchpad beside her, the visor lying open like a broken promise.
Luffy sat nearby, legs crossed, staring at his straw hat on the shelf they'd built yesterday.
Neither could sleep.
Not really.
Because the walls weren't quiet anymore.
They whispered.
And the echoes weren't from the past.
They were warnings.