"Then this time, I'll protect you."
Gwen Stacy grabbed the black strand attached to the streetlight and yanked backward.
Crack!
The streetlight's base split apart.
The overturned bus lurched outward under the strand's pull, its burning body sliding past her shoulder. Flames beneath it curled up the door, and the heat slammed into her face like a wall.
Venom let out a piercing shriek inside her head.
"Fire! Fire! Gwen Stacy, that's fire! We should retreat! Immediately! Right away! Now!"
"There are still people inside."
"We can save people later!"
"They can't wait until later."
Black fluid surged down Gwen Stacy's arms. It had barely formed armor before the intense heat made it hiss. Its edges kept peeling away like melting asphalt.
Gwen Stacy gritted her teeth and gripped the warped door with both hands.
The doorframe had buckled inward in the crash, its metal edges jammed tight. She adjusted her stance and scanned the underside of the bus.
"The load is on the right support. Break that first. We can't just wrench the door open."
"You're facing a burning bus, not a model in a laboratory!"
"I know."
Gwen Stacy spread the five fingers of her right hand.
Three black tendrils shot from her fingertips, slipped through the gap in the cracked door, and wrapped precisely around a twisted seat support.
She pulled them tight.
Snap!
The support broke.
The door sprang outward half a foot.
A red-gloved hand reached out from inside, its fingers gripping the broken window frame before falling limp again.
"Spider-Man!" Gwen Stacy's voice tightened.
A muffled cough came from deep inside the bus.
"I'm still alive! For now! But if you could get this bus off me, my health outlook would improve considerably!"
That voice.
Gwen Stacy froze for half a second.
She had