To get home faster, Gaia dumped the car at Oscorp and carried Peter and Gwen over his shoulders as he sprinted all the way back.
Carried on Gaia’s shoulders, Peter and Gwen struggled at first, trying to get him to let them go.
As time went on, however, their increasingly strange physical conditions robbed them of the strength to resist.
[Little Spider Theater: I know what you guys want to say, and I want to say something too, but there’s no time left.
Anyway, Cousin Gaia would never hurt me.
Good afternoon, everyone.]
(Little Peter tilted his head and started snoring, a small bubble occasionally popping from his nostril.)
Unlike Peter, who fell fast asleep without a care in the world, no matter how unwell Gwen felt, a intense sense of embarrassment kept her from sleeping as peacefully as him.
God knew what she was feeling right now—being carried over a man’s shoulder as he paraded through the streets.
Not resisting was one thing…
She even felt a strange flutter in her heart, an accelerating thump that grew stronger by the second.
*Even if Mr.
Parker saved you, you can’t be like this, Gwen.
That’s so embarrassing!*
*By the way, does Mr.
Parker wear cologne?
It smells pretty good.*
*Oh no, wait—Gwen Stacy, you’ve really gone crazy!*
*I hope no one recognizes me,* Gwen prayed in her heart, covering her face with both hands.
In about ten minutes, Gaia arrived home carrying Gwen and Peter, both of whom had eventually fallen asleep.
After dropping Peter into his room and dumping Gwen in a spare guest room, Gaia used his last thread of consciousness to check on the beef and high-energy foods he had prepared long ago.
Luckily, he had a whole warehouse of emergency supplies stored up for disasters; otherwise, the bit of food prepared for Peter wouldn’t have been enough for three people.
Little Gaia stood beside Gaia, glancing at the food, then at Gaia.
He yawned, rubbed his eyes, and waved.
“Good afternoon, everyone.
I can’t hold out any longer.
And one more thing: son-of-a-bitch Spider-Whore, motherfucking Master Weaver, fuck you.”
With that, Little Gaia plopped straight onto the floor with a *clack*, hands folded peacefully over his stomach, lying there with a serene expression.
Gaia followed suit, doing the exact same thing right beside him.
…
In a quiet realm deep within Gaia’s soul.
There was almost nothing here except a moon hanging in the night sky, a expanse of earth burning with hellfire, and three figures sitting together, looking identical to Gaia.
“Hey, good pals, looks like we’re about to get much stronger,” a soft, clear voice spoke.
“Yeah, who would’ve thought the Spider Totem would choose us?” a bright, steady voice chimed in.
After a moment of silence, the owner of the deep, gentle voice nudged the person who hadn’t spoken with his elbow.
“Blake, don’t you have anything to say?”
Blake looked helplessly at the owner of the soft, clear voice, his tone low and chilling.
“I’m thinking about something, Cassius.
Still, being chosen by the Spider Totem is pretty good.
That fellow Khonshu won’t stay quiet.
Next time he shows up, we’ll give him a nice surprise.”
Cassius and the owner of the bright, steady voice exchanged glances before Cassius asked, “Do you need our help?”
Blake shook his head.
“I can handle it.”
“Alright then.” Seeing that Blake didn’t need help, Cassius turned back to the owner of the bright, steady voice.
“Ray, you were split off the earliest.
Do you think we’ll get new companions?”
Ray pondered for a moment before replying, “I don’t think so.
Based on my observations, splitting off a new personality requires Gaia to have an exceptionally prominent trait in some area.
Just like how I represent Gaia’s benevolence and justice, you represent Gaia’s integrity and easygoing nature, Blake represents Gaia’s nobility and reserve, and Muse represents Gaia’s wisdom and intellect.
After the four of us were split off, Gaia’s positive and negative sides reached a balance.
It’ll be hard for new companions to be born now.”
Cassius scratched his head in disappointment.
“So that’s how it works?
What a shame.
Sigh, I wonder when Muse will be back.
A place this big with only three people feels pretty lonely.”
…
Who knew how much time had passed when Gaia was woken by an intense surge of hunger.
“I’m still breathing, which means I’m not dead.”
Gaia struggled into a sitting position and rubbed the back of his neck.
The spot where the spider had bitten him was now completely healed, leaving no mark behind.
Little Gaia bounced over to stand before him.
“Hey, pal!
Congrats, the operation was a huge success.
You’re now a female—
“Bah bah bah, cough cough…
You’re a failed man now!
Soon you’ll be all alone, go bankrupt, and turn into a penniless bum.
Aren’t you thrilled?”
Gaia snorted and sent Little Gaia flying into the adjacent wall with a single slap.
The immense force left Little Gaia stuck to the wall for a long while before sliding off.
Patting off his clothes, Gaia stood up and inspected his body.
Hmm…
how should he put it?
His clothes felt noticeably loose.
What?
Becoming Spider-Man came with a complimentary weight-loss plan?
Cracking his neck, Gaia walked over to the full-length mirror.
Looking in, he was surprised to find he really had lost a lot of weight.
Originally over 1.9 meters tall, he had been built identically to Nolan—a classic, massive hunk of muscle.
Now his height didn’t seem to have changed much, but his build had shifted to a balanced physique like Mark’s—muscular and powerful, yet supple and agile.
How to put it?
It looked great.
In any case, Gaia liked it a lot.
After striking a few poses in front of the mirror, Gaia began exploring his new abilities.
First was electrostatic adhesion—wall-crawling—no problem there.
Next was Spider-Sense, which allowed him to clearly pinpoint the exact locations of Gwen and Peter—no problem.
Finally…
Gaia looked at the two white spots on his wrists.
After a brief pause, he faced the wall and struck a classic Spider-Man pose.
With a sharp *thwip*, a strand of webbing shot out from his wrist.
That wasn’t all.
Sensing he could push further, Gaia exerted more force.
An electrical current instantly surged across both his arms and was guided along the attached webbing straight into the wall, melting a fist-sized hole into the structure.
“Holy crap.
Good thing it wasn’t a load-bearing wall, but the power isn’t bad.”
Gaia snapped the webbing attached to his wrists, stepped forward to inspect the hole in the wall, and nodded in satisfaction.
Not bad at all.
Excellent.
Seeing that he could discharge electricity, another thought struck him.
He remembered another Spider-Man who could project electricity could also turn invisible.
No sooner thought than done.
Gaia immediately began experimenting to see if he could turn invisible.
Unfortunately, half an hour passed, and after trying every method imaginable, he still couldn’t do it.
With a sigh, Gaia had no choice but to accept that he couldn’t turn invisible.
Taking a bite of pineapple pizza, he opened his system panel to check his physical stats.
As everyone knew, Spider-Man’s physical stats were top-tier in Marvel, but he wondered how much further his baseline—which originally sat at ten tons of strength—would be boosted after the mutation.
Expectantly opening the system panel, the golden, glittering display made Little Gaia burst into a Kung Fu Panda Po-style shriek:
[Character: Gaia Parker] [Grip Strength: 22.31 tons] [Wrist Strength: 44.63 tons] [Leg Strength: 66.66 tons] [Speed: 154.23 m/s] [Reaction Time: 0.00067 s]