“Big Boss!
Big Brother Gaia suddenly vanished!”
Wanda had just cast a spell on herself when Odebiao burst out of Gaia’s dressing room in a rush.
“Just like *whoosh*—*whoosh*, and he was gone!
Whoa…
how’d you get even prettier?
How’d you do that?
Can you teach me?
I want to get a girlfriend.”
Wanda paid no attention to Odebiao’s babbling.
With Chaos Magic covering her eyes, she looked into the dressing room and confirmed that Gaia was indeed gone.
She looked up at the ceiling and saw that Little Gaia was gone as well.
Frowning, she glared at Odebiao and demanded sharply, “What happened?
Tell me!”
Startled by her tone, Odebiao didn’t dare bring up asking her to make him look better.
“Well, it went like this…”
…
A few seconds earlier, Gaia had been discussing a serious matter with Odebiao when his Spider-Sense suddenly triggered, sending a wave of dizziness through his head.
Gaia closed his eyes and shook his head.
When he opened them again, he was standing somewhere both unfamiliar and familiar.
Little Gaia leaped onto his shoulder, looking around.
“Ooh…
where are we?
Looks kind of like New York from a few years ago.”
Gaia nodded in agreement.
Just as he was about to speak, a helicopter flew overhead.
“Catch Spider-Man!”
Gaia blinked.
“What the fuck?”
Little Gaia raised an eyebrow.
“Did Peter do something huge behind our backs?”
Gaia shook his head and actively used his Spider-Sense to locate Peter, successfully locking onto his position.
“Strange…
why can’t I sense Gwen?
Did she leave New York?
That doesn’t make sense.
For the past two months, that girl’s told me everything she’s doing.
She wouldn’t leave New York without telling me.”
Sensing that something was off, Gaia expanded his Spider-Sense even further.
This time, he realized that the Peter he was sensing didn’t seem to be *his* Peter.
“Motherfucker!
Where the hell am I?”
Little Gaia punched him on the shoulder.
“Hey man, stop overthinking it.
Look over there.”
Gaia looked in the direction Little Gaia was pointing and saw tower cranes lining up and swinging into position.
Seeing this, Gaia sighed and lowered his head.
“Okay, I think I know where I am now.”
Gaia raised his hand, shot a line of Silk, and swung after the helicopter.
…
Having narrowly escaped with her life from the Lizard, a still-shaken Gwen ran out of Oscorp Tower.
Just then, she ran right into George Stacy, who had just arrived at the scene.
Upon seeing George Stacy, Gwen rushed forward and handed him the antidote in her hand.
“Dad, this is the antidote to neutralize the Lizard’s powers.
Get it to Spider-Man!”
Looking at his daughter, George Stacy knew how severe the situation was and nodded without hesitation.
“Hey, you two.
Mind handing that over to me?”
George Stacy instinctively turned and shielded Gwen behind him, drawing his gun on the speaker.
“Woah, woah, take it easy, Captain Stacy.
That little toy won’t work on me.”
Gaia leaped down from a police car, reached out, and snatched the gun from George Stacy’s hands.
He crushed it into a flat piece of metal with one hand and tossed it aside.
“I’m Gaia Parker, son of Ben Parker and May Parker, and Peter’s cousin.
You can trust me with the antidote—I’ll go help Peter.”
When George Stacy saw the young man claiming to be Gaia Parker crush a handgun into a metal disc with one hand, he realized he might be in serious trouble today.
However, the man’s words gave him a glimmer of hope.
Seeing the sincere expression on the young man’s face, George Stacy hesitated briefly before slowly raising the hand holding the serum.
“No, don’t give it to him!
Peter doesn’t have a cousin!”
Gwen’s warning put George Stacy back on high alert.
Gaia shook his head helplessly and shot a line of Silk at the nearby police car.
“Gwen, as a star student, I assume you know about parallel universe theory.”
Seeing Gaia shoot Silk, Gwen and George Stacy stared at him in shock.
After a long silence, Gwen spoke up.
“Give him the antidote.”
George Stacy looked at Gaia and asked, “Can I trust you?”
Gaia answered solemnly, “You can always trust me, Captain Stacy.
Honestly, you’re a lot more serious than the version in our universe.
The Captain Stacy in our world is like a grumpy little old man.”
Hearing the man chat so candidly, George Stacy lowered his guard and placed the antidote into Gaia’s palm.
“I’m counting on you.”
Gaia gave a firm nod, turned with the antidote, and shot a line of Silk toward the location of Peter in his Spider-Sense.
…
The Lizard wrapped his tail tightly around Spider-Man’s neck and grabbed both of his wrists, crushing the web-shooters on them to pieces with sheer force.
Then, using his claws, he tore off Spider-Man’s mask, revealing Peter Parker’s face.
The Lizard constricted his tail hard, turning Peter’s face bright red.
Then, in his distinct voice, he sneered word by word, “Poor Peter Parker!
No father, no mother, no uncle…
so alone…”
Peter was being choked purple, on the verge of passing out.
A voice echoed from the distance: “Now he has a cousin.”
The Lizard instinctively turned toward the source of the voice, but before he could complete the movement, a flying dropkick struck him squarely in the face, blasting him backward.
If one listened closely, the impact was accompanied by the sound of the Lizard’s skull fracturing.
Little Gaia cheered excitedly, “Oh yeah!
Leo Kick was a total success!”
Gaia landed and held out a hand to Peter on the ground.
“It was actually Ultraman Taro’s Swallow Kick, you fake fan.”
Peter grabbed Gaia’s hand and pulled himself up.
Battered and bruised, he looked at Gaia in total confusion.
He had no idea who this black-haired, impeccably built young man was.
“Cough, cough…
Who are you?”
Gaia smiled faintly and tossed the antidote to Peter.
“Ever heard of parallel universes?
I’m Gaia Parker, son of Ben Parker and May Parker, and I have a cousin named Peter Parker who’s eight years younger than me.
Alright, that’s enough talk.
Go do what you need to do—leave this giant lizard to me.”
With those words, Gaia leaped into the air, rushed up to the Lizard who had just scrambled up, and sent him flying with a single punch.
“Come on!
This move is called Fire and Ice!”
He bound the Lizard in web-silk, electrifying and paralyzing him while slamming him toward a liquid nitrogen tank.
Having contained the Lizard, Gaia shot another strand of Silk at him.
This time, the Silk passed under the Lizard’s armpits and anchored onto a heavy metal crate behind him.
Before the Lizard could recover from the previous blow, Gaia grabbed the Silk, vaulted high over the Lizard’s head, landed on the metal crate, and yanked back with massive force.
Combining the Silk’s tensile strength and durability with his own raw power, he sliced off both of the Lizard’s arms cleanly.
Although Peter was shocked by Gaia’s words, he knew what was most important right now.
Seeing that the Lizard was completely outmatched by Gaia, Peter gritted his teeth and scrambled toward the dispersal device with the antidote.
With no Lizard to stop him, even while injured, Peter scaled the launcher within seconds and swapped the pathogen with the antidote.
“No!!!”
Beaten to a pulp by Gaia, the Lizard saw this unfold and tried to fight back against Gaia, but finding it completely futile, could only let out a roar of despair.
The dispersal device fired successfully, sending the antidote into the sky where it erupted, dispersing into a descending mist of blue frost.
Under the effect of the antidote, the Lizard’s monstrous features rapidly receded, his right arm melting away like ice cream.
He transformed back into a human: Curt Connors.
Peter jumped down from the launch platform, cast a glance at Connors, and then locked his gaze onto Gaia.
A mix of curiosity, confusion, anxiety, and disbelief washed across Peter’s face.
“Excuse me, sir…
did you just say you were…”