Educating Teenagers

After resolving the "Aunt May crisis," the two Peters returned to the topic they had been discussing. But to prevent another accident like that, they climbed out the window and moved their conversation to a secluded grove several hundred meters away.

"Now it's about time you explained yourself," the Peter in the blue T-shirt demanded first. "Who exactly are you? What do you want?"

"I know exactly who I am. My name is Peter Parker." Peter met his gaze without backing down. "The question is, who are you?"

"That's funny, because I'm the real Peter Parker, and I'm quite sure I don't have an identically named twin. If you really are me, then you must know something only I would know. Like..." He thought carefully for a while. "...the first girl I liked. Who was she?"

"Mary Jane Watson. She moved in across from us when I was five." Peter answered without hesitation. "From then on, we were best friends. I liked her for a long time, until her family moved away when I was thirteen. I never saw her again after that."

The one in the blue T-shirt narrowed his eyes and stared at him with an unsettling look for a long while.

"That was luck, but I'll let you pass that one."

"Now it's my turn to ask," Peter said. "Who was Peter Parker's first girlfriend?"

"Gwen Stacy." Blue T-shirt answered decisively. "Before high school, I barely even spoke to girls. Gwen was the first person willing to let me get close, until..."

He stopped, gently closing his eyes as though he were truly reliving that painful memory.

"...So that's why you gave up being Spider-Man," he said softly.

Peter noticed that the pronoun in his statement had changed from "I" to "you."

"Damn it, you really are the genuine Spider-Man." Pain appeared on the other Peter's face. "These memories... they feel so real. I can remember every detail clearly. I remember Gwen falling from the bridge. I remember Harry's mad laughter. And how you did everything you could to catch her. But deep down, I know none of it is real. I tried to convince myself, to make myself believe that I was the real Spider-Man, but from the instant before Aunt May walked in, I realized I could never become you."

Peter stood frozen, not knowing what to say.

"...I realized that in the end, I'm just a fake. Your shadow," the other Peter continued. "I'm not Peter Parker. I'm not Spider-Man. I'm Spider-Man's clone."

"Wait, you're saying you're my clone?" Peter asked in surprise. "But who—"

"Yes, and unfortunately, I'm not the only one. There are others much worse than me."

Before Clone Peter could finish, a needle-like stab of pain struck both of them at once. Warned by their Spider-Sense, the two Peters turned their heads alertly at the same time, only to see the black-clad figure in a tattered red cape descend from the sky once again. He flipped through the air and landed heavily before them.

"Okay, I was just trying to tell you there were much worse clones?" Clone Peter leaped back and took up a fighting stance. "Look, now he's here."

After wolfing down her third sandwich, the clone girl finally seemed to accept her current situation. Michael briefly explained what had happened, and he was somewhat surprised to find that the girl did not seem too shocked upon hearing that she was a clone.

"So, I'm a clone." She wiped the bread crumbs from the corner of her mouth and gave a self-mocking laugh. "Well... deep down, I think I've always felt that way. Like all my memories—despite being so clear, so real—belonged to someone else. In every one of those fragments, I was only a spectator. I could only watch. I couldn't take part, couldn't change anything, and I couldn't feel the emotions the real Gwen had."

She lifted her head, her emerald-green eyes gleaming like jewels.

"You were the one who saved me?"

"More or less."

"Thank you. Truly." The girl nodded, then lowered her head again and said dejectedly, "But why didn't you just destroy me?"

"Why do you think I would need to do that?"

"Because I shouldn't exist, should I?" Her tone sounded matter-of-fact, with a hint of self-abandonment. "I'm not Gwen Stacy, and obviously I'm not Spider-Man either. They made me only as a weapon, to make me kill someone. God never prepared a place for me in this world. My very existence has no meaning at all."

Wanda opened her mouth, but closed it again without saying anything. She wanted to comfort the suffering girl, yet she realized she knew practically nothing about her fate. Even if she wanted to offer comfort, she did not know where to begin.

Michael pressed his lips together.

Why save Gwen? Because she was supposedly the finest clone specimen, possessing superhuman abilities that even surpassed the original Spider-Man, and Michael happened to be short on people.

But if she kept up this self-denying, negative state, she obviously wouldn't be much help.

He slowly bent down and met the downcast girl's eyes.

"I saved you because I have my own plans." His tone was icy, sounding less like comfort than criticism. "But first, you need to understand one thing. God has not arranged a place for anyone. Not for you, and not for me. No one's existence has any meaning—unless they fight for it."

The girl raised her head in confusion.

"Meaning, value—those are things people give themselves, not things granted by some so-called God. Whether you like it or not, you're already alive in this world. So if you keep living the rest of your life with that mindset, wasting your gifts, then you truly will have no meaning. But if you decide to take control of your own fate and carve out your own future, then from this moment on, you are Gwen."

The girl's eyes widened as she looked directly into his from such close range. She felt that the eyes before her were deep and sharp, as if they concealed a razor blade, carrying an irresistible force of persuasion.

A phone rang from the inner pocket of Michael's trench coat.

He straightened up, took out his phone, and glanced at the screen. The caller ID showed Sherry.

"Sorry, excuse me for a moment."

Michael left the room and entered the corridor. Only after closing the door behind him did he answer the call. "What is it? I'm busy educating teenagers."

"Apologies for disturbing your work, sir," Sherry said. "But you instructed me to report directly to you whenever we located the base of any remaining Hydra Leader still at large?"

"Do you have something?"

"Daniel Whitehall, one of the biggest fish, sir. A Sky Sword Agent reported his hideout five minutes ago."

"Good. Don't hang up. Wait for me a moment."

Michael lowered the phone, returned to the room, and said to the three superpowered teenagers, "Sorry, I have an urgent matter to deal with. We'll continue this conversation when I get back. Try to get along while I'm gone, all right?"

Wanda nodded at him. "We'll take good care of Gwen."

Michael closed the door and returned to the corridor. As he walked briskly outside, he put on his wireless earpiece. "Send me the address, Sherry. Also, have the armor ready. We're leaving in three minutes."