Showdown Time

Because the battle with the Spider Swarm had ended so early, no one took the day off. Even Peter Parker, who had been fried to a crisp by electricity, only felt that his hair was a little dry. After all, high-voltage electricity was nothing much to Spider-Man.

The most immediate consequence of the entire battle was that, during lunch in Midtown High School's cafeteria, an attention-seeker wearing a cheap Spider-Man cosplay outfit appeared and wildly showed off his experience to everyone around him.

"Listen up, guys, I ran into Spider-Man today! And I helped him out big time!"

Peter sat nearby, silently shoved a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth, and sighed. Even without Flash flooring the gas pedal, it would not have been a problem. His contingency plan had specifically accounted for the possibility that the fire hydrants would have no water, and for that situation, The Punisher had already prepared plastic explosives. They could blow up the rooftop water tanks of the nearby buildings and let the water pour down to conduct the electricity.

So Thompson had not been needed at all. But since he had already rushed to the scene, Peter had to let him do something. Otherwise, who knew what kind of mess the guy might have caused.

"Hey, guys, I saw something incredible."

Amadeus was unusually excited as he approached, wearing a lab coat over a completely mismatched green T-shirt. "You'll never believe what happened!"

"The Hulk attacked?"

Harry's joke got no response from Amadeus. The latter was so excited it was practically unparalleled, but he could barely shout because he was almost hoarse from excitement.

"Internship opportunities at the Baxter Building! Our school got three spots!" Amadeus delivered the truly shocking news. "Can you believe it? A chance to do research with Reed Richards. Whatever you guys think, I'm definitely signing up!"

Peter was just about to speak when a slender hand suddenly landed on his shoulder. He looked up and, unsurprisingly, saw Gwen's expressionless face.

"Sorry, guys, I'm borrowing someone. Are you done eating?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, guys."

Peter awkwardly nodded to his friends and was pulled away by Gwen. Amadeus and Harry exchanged a look, then Harry suddenly asked, "Are you going to the Homecoming Dance this year, Amadeus?"

"I can't find a dance partner at all. What about you, Harry?"

"I think there's a really pretty girl, but I don't dare ask her."

The two looked at each other again and sighed in unison.

Gwen dragged Peter into a small room filled with all sorts of musical instruments. After letting go of him, she sat on the drum stool and stared directly at him. "So, are you ready to explain what happened this morning?"

"Uh... what happened?"

"Fine, let's go through this one thing at a time. First, when I first met Spider-Man, he was wearing the same shoes as you. You happened to run out right then, and you only came back after Spider-Man had dealt with everything."

Gwen simply stared at Peter Parker, while Peter said nothing and stared back at her.

"...Second, yesterday I went to bring my dad food, and I saw the note Spider-Man had left him. The handwriting was identical to the writing from your left hand."

"Why would you remember my left-hand handwriting?" Peter froze for a moment. He really had not known Gwen remembered something like that. Gwen also paused, then recalled why.

"Because it was cool. You were the first person I'd ever met—and honestly, still the only one—who could write with both hands, and whose handwriting was so different between them. So I remembered it. But that's beside the point." Gwen waved her hand and gave her third reason. "Then, last night, I planned to hear your explanation, but you didn't come home all night!"

"You didn't sleep all night, did you?"

After saying that, Peter looked at Gwen. Gwen looked back at him as if it were only natural, and Peter sighed helplessly. Sometimes, having a childhood friend like this was genuinely troublesome. He scratched his head, thought for quite a while, then nodded.

"Fine. Remember the Osborn Tech Expo half a year ago? We went over to the spider display case, and it suddenly shattered. Then Carl grabbed the radioactive spider that ran out and put it on my neck—"

"And you became Spider-Man?"

For the first time, Gwen felt that becoming a superhero could be this absurdly casual. What if Osborn Industries had been researching mutant cockroaches or mutant mosquitoes? What would Peter Parker be now?

But Gwen decided to skip over that question for the moment.

"Okay. Does Uncle Ben know?"

Peter nodded.

"Aunt May... Aunt May definitely doesn't know. You were afraid she'd worry. But what about me? Why didn't you tell me?"

Peter was silent for about two seconds, then fired back a string of questions.

"If I told you, could you promise not to come help me, not to ask me to take you swinging all over New York, or ask whether I could hang upside down from the ceiling and drink coffee?"

"In your dreams. Wait, you really can—"

Before Peter could say, "That's why I didn't tell you," the door opened. Mary Jane walked in, and she looked quite surprised to see Peter there. "Hey, Peter, why are you here?"

"I found something fun and didn't tell Gwen, so she called me in here to interrogate me. I have to go. I've got something to do after school, something important."

As he spoke, Peter slipped past Mary Jane. Before leaving, he caught Gwen's look that said, I'm not done with you, nodded, and closed the door behind him.

He was not making excuses so he could avoid Gwen after school. He really did have something urgent to take care of. His Web Shooter had been bitten apart by the Spider Swarm during the battle with Carl. The damage was far beyond what a screwdriver and wrench could fix. After thinking it over, he decided to ditch the old-fashioned Web Shooter altogether and use the Avengers' resources to make a new, more efficient one.

He also had to verify whether the other one really was Carl. The odds were low, but if it really was, then that would be a problem.

So that day, subway passengers witnessed a bizarre sight: Spider-Man obediently tapped his card to enter the station, squeezed onto the train amid the crowd, and even politely gave up his seat for an elderly woman. Twenty minutes later, he jogged into Avengers Tower and pressed the top-floor button with practiced ease, as though he were merely an ordinary employee coming in for overtime.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., get the lab ready for me."

The elevator doors opened. Before J.A.R.V.I.S. could reply, Peter stepped into the Avengers' office area and sensed something wrong almost immediately—his Spider-Sense did not react at all, yet he could still feel that something behind him was off. He leaned backward and dodged a kick aimed at his head, then continued the motion, braced his hands against the floor, and kicked both feet at the attacker's legs. After confirming that he had missed, he pushed off with both arms, performed a backflip, and flung a chair straight at the attacker.

"Wow, that's not very gentlemanly toward a lady, kid."

Peter stopped after throwing the chair and turned toward the owner of the teasing voice. A black, one-eyed egghead came into view. Nick Fury wore a black trench coat and held the same kind of liquor The Punisher had drunk yesterday, casually pouring himself a glass.

"Before Tony Stark and his Avengers disappeared, he told me some things about the multiverse and some Spider-Woman. I brought the person you were looking for, kid." Fury raised his glass and gestured behind Peter. "Come meet S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Level Four agent, Silk, Cindy Moon."

Peter turned around. Standing behind him was a girl about his age. Her face was uncovered, and she wore a suit made from some unknown material. The torso was white with a web pattern extending outward from her chest, shifting from red to black and weaving a red "S" at the center. Her limbs were pure black with no visible webbing, except that the index and middle finger coverings on her gloves were red.

Seemingly noticing Peter's gaze, the girl pulled up the red scarf around her neck, covering the lower half of her face.