Oscorp — Norman Osborn’s Office — Afternoon
Sitting behind his desk, Norman Osborn quietly worked on his computer, carefully going through the various files displayed on the screen.
The room was peaceful, disturbed only by the steady sound of his fingers tapping against the keyboard, until the sudden ringing of his phone interrupted his concentration.
Norman immediately stopped and glanced toward the device before answering.
— “Norman?”
He immediately recognized Tombstone’s voice.
— “Hello, Lincoln. How are you? Have you managed to get rid of this… Spider-Man?”
— “No… not yet.”
Tombstone’s answer made Norman frown slightly.
After everything that had been placed at his disposal, he naturally expected the problem to have already been dealt with.
— “Not yet? Then what are you waiting for? Didn’t you say he was jeopardizing our plans and our business?”
Tombstone quickly responded.
— “Yes, that’s exactly the problem. Unfortunately, your Scorpion and my Shocker weren’t enough to take him down.”
Norman remained silent for a few seconds, considering the implications of this failure.
If Spider-Man had been capable of holding his own against two opponents that dangerous and still coming out on top, then it was obvious that Tombstone would have to rethink his strategy and considerably increase the resources deployed against him.
— “So, if I understand correctly, you need another super-soldier?”
— “Not one. Two.”
That answer immediately caught Norman’s attention.
His expression shifted slightly as he straightened in his chair, now much more invested in the conversation.
— “Two? Interesting…”
— “And I assume you already have these two test subjects?” Norman asked.
— “Yes. Two failures who screw up every mission they’re given, with or without Spider-Man. I was considering getting rid of them… but in the end, they’ll serve as your test subjects and my super-soldiers. For once in their lives, they’ll actually be useful.”
Norman listened carefully without raising the slightest objection.
The identities of the two men ultimately mattered very little to him.
As long as they could withstand the experiments he intended to put them through, they represented, above all else, two new opportunities to continue his research and push the limits of what Oscorp was capable of creating even further.
— “Very well. When will they arrive?”
— “They’re already on their way with Hammerhead. They’ll be at your place soon. And Norman… I’m counting on you to turn those two idiots into real weapons of war.”
A confident smile slowly spread across Norman’s face.
After the success of the experiment performed on Mac Gargan, the prospect of doing it all over again with two new subjects didn’t worry him in the slightest.
Quite the opposite.
— “Don’t worry. You won’t be disappointed.”
The call ended a few seconds later, and Norman slowly moved the phone away from his ear before placing it back on his desk.
Silence immediately returned to the room, but he didn’t go back to work right away.
He remained motionless in front of his screen, already considering the possibilities these two new test subjects offered him and what he could turn them into once they were in his hands.
Little by little, as those possibilities began to take shape in his mind, a cold and unsettling smile appeared on his face.
New York — The Corner Café — Afternoon
At the beginning of the afternoon, the atmosphere around the Corner Café was particularly peaceful.
A few customers quietly enjoyed their drinks while chatting around the tables, as the sunlight gently illuminated the street and bathed the terrace in a pleasant glow.
Already waiting there, Gwen patiently waited for Peter to arrive, regularly glancing around and keeping an eye out for any familiar face among the few passersby.
After several minutes, she finally pulled out her phone to check the time and discovered that it was already 2:10 PM.
Peter was ten minutes late.
Gwen looked up and scanned the area once again, hoping to see him appear around the corner, but there was still no sign of him.
Even though Peter being late wasn’t particularly surprising, she couldn’t stop a hint of disappointment from showing on her face.
She had hoped that, for an outing he had personally suggested, he would make an exception and actually show up on time.
— “I was hoping he’d be on time… but I guess not.”
While she continued watching the street in front of her, completely unaware of what was happening behind her, Peter had just arrived in an alley located directly behind the café.
Only moments earlier, he had been clinging to the side of a building.
Taking advantage of the absence of nearby pedestrians, he quietly left the wall and jumped down to the ground without risking drawing any attention.
Once he was certain no one had seen him, he casually approached Gwen from behind, while she remained far too busy searching for him in the opposite direction to notice his presence.
— “Hey!”
— “PETER?!”
Gwen jumped violently at the sudden sound of his voice behind her and immediately spun around, eyes wide.
Peter, clearly amused by the reaction he’d just caused, instantly gave her a teasing smile.
— “No, it’s Harry. Of course it’s me!”
— “But… how did you get there? I didn’t even see you coming!”
Peter simply gave an innocent shrug, careful not to reveal anything about the way he’d actually arrived.
— “Oh, you know… I’m a very discreet guy.”
His answer made Gwen laugh softly as she shook her head, gradually recovering from the surprise.
— “I can see that! I didn’t even hear you coming!”
Now that he was standing in front of her, Peter remembered that he had once again kept her waiting.
His amusement gave way to slight embarrassment as he offered her an apologetic smile.
— “And sorry I’m late. Being on time really isn’t my strong suit, apparently.”
Gwen stared at him for a few moments with an exaggeratedly serious expression, as though she were genuinely considering the severity of his offense, before a small smile eventually betrayed her amusement.
— “It’s fine, you’re only ten minutes late. I guess we can say you’re improving.”
— “Yeah, and trust me… it’s not easy.”
A light laugh followed his response before their eyes naturally met.
For a few seconds, neither Peter nor Gwen really felt the need to say anything.
They were simply happy to be alone together, away from school and their usual concerns, just like they’d so often been able to do when they were younger.
Peter eventually broke the brief silence, an eager smile appearing on his face at the thought of finally starting their afternoon together.
— “So, shall we?”
Gwen immediately answered, clearly just as happy as he was to finally enjoy this moment together.
— “Yeah, let’s go!”
Peter and Gwen left the café behind and began walking side by side through the streets of New York.
Yet despite their excitement at finally getting to spend some time together, a certain awkwardness gradually settled between them.
Now that they were actually alone, without Harry or any of their other friends around to naturally keep the conversation going, neither of them seemed to know exactly how to act.
Especially since, deep down…
this outing wasn’t really meant to be just friendly.
Peter walked beside her while trying to appear perfectly relaxed, but his mind was already desperately searching for a way to prevent their outing from turning into one long, silent walk.
— “Okay… we’re here, that’s cool, but… I didn’t even think about what we’re actually gonna do. Great job, Peter… now what?”
After a few more seconds of searching for an idea without managing to find one that seemed interesting enough, Peter finally turned his head slightly toward Gwen.
— “Uh… Gwen?”
Almost at the same moment, Gwen seemed to want to put an end to the silence as well and spoke before he had time to add anything else.
— “How about a movie?”
The suggestion immediately had the benefit of relieving Peter, who accepted with such spontaneous enthusiasm that it almost seemed excessive.
— “Oh yeah! That’s a great idea! It’s been forever since I’ve been to the movies too!”
They therefore headed toward the movie theater located a few streets away, but having found a destination wasn’t enough to completely make the awkwardness between them disappear.
As they walked side by side, their arms occasionally moved closer together and their hands would accidentally brush against each other, provoking the same reaction every time: a brief movement backward, an averted gaze and that clumsy attempt to act as though nothing had just happened.
Neither of them really dared to comment on those small touches, which only increased their nervousness and made their silence even more revealing.
— “Now that I’m alone with Peter…”
On his side, Peter began at that exact same moment to realize what made the situation feel so unusual.
— “I’m realizing that with Harry in our lives…”
Without being able to hear each other’s thoughts, they nevertheless reached the exact same conclusion.
— “…We’d never gone out just the two of us anymore!”
That realization brought back many childhood memories for Gwen, from a time when spending time alone with Peter had absolutely nothing strange about it.
They could stay together for hours without thinking about how they were supposed to act, without analyzing every glance or every little gesture.
Back then, their relationship was simple and their closeness felt completely natural, but the years had passed and their feelings had evolved along with them.
— “Before, it was pure friendship. We were kids… but now…”
Once again, their thoughts met at exactly the same moment.
— “It’s clearly not the same anymore!”
Too absorbed in her thoughts, Gwen continued walking without noticing that they had just arrived in front of the movie theater.
Peter noticed just in time and, seeing that she was about to keep walking, instinctively reached out to stop her by grabbing her hand.
The moment their fingers touched, both of them froze almost simultaneously.
The gesture hadn’t been intentionally romantic at all, yet the feeling of their hands against each other was enough to make their cheeks heat up.
Peter suddenly realized what he had done and pulled his hand away with a haste that immediately betrayed his nervousness.
— “O-Oh, uh, sorry!”
Gwen brought her hand slightly closer to herself, just as unsettled, before letting out a small nervous laugh as she tried to downplay the importance of the gesture.
— “I-It’s okay! Really!”
New York — Movie Theater
After that particularly awkward exchange, Peter and Gwen entered the movie theater and reached the main lobby, where they walked over to the screening board so they could quietly choose what they were going to watch.
However, it only took them a few seconds to discover a detail neither of them had been prepared for: the only movie currently being shown was a romance.
Peter stared at the poster for a few moments, as though hoping another title would somehow magically appear somewhere if he looked long enough.
After all the awkward silences, the hands brushing against each other and their far too embarrassed reactions since the beginning of the afternoon, of course their only option had to be a romantic movie.
— “Seriously? There’s only THIS movie?! Since when is that even possible?!”
Gwen also looked at the poster before discreetly glancing toward Peter.
Even though she was trying to maintain a perfectly natural attitude, the situation obviously wasn’t escaping her either.
— “So… do you want to watch it, or do we do something else?”
Peter immediately hesitated.
He especially didn’t want to give the impression that he was particularly eager to watch a romance with her, but refusing too quickly risked making the situation just as strange.
Unable to decide which answer would be the least embarrassing, he chose to turn the question back on her.
— “Uh… depends. Do you want to?”
Gwen innocently shrugged, clearly unwilling to make the decision herself.
— “I don’t know… whatever you want.”
Behind his hesitant expression, Peter felt his nervousness rise another level.
He would have much preferred her to give him a clear answer rather than leave the entire decision to him.
— “Come on, ‘I don’t know’ isn’t an answer! Do you want to or not?!”
As he was still trying to figure out what he was supposed to say, a particularly embarrassing memory suddenly came back to him.
A scene from six years earlier, one he probably would have preferred to forget, and which involved a very similar situation, as well as the two people who had taken care of him for a large part of his childhood: his Aunt May and his Uncle Ben.
In the kitchen of the Parker house, the atmosphere was relaxed.
Aunt May and Uncle Ben were sitting around the table while Peter stood nearby, his arms crossed and his face marked by deep confusion.
The conversation had eventually drifted toward girls and, for several minutes already, May had been trying to explain something to him that seemed perfectly obvious to her.
— “Peter, you’ll see… when a girl says ‘I don’t know’, it often means ‘I’d like to, but I want you to be the one who suggests it.'”
Peter immediately frowned.
The more he thought about that explanation, the less sense it seemed to make to him.
— “But… why doesn’t she just say it clearly then?”
— “Because she wants you to understand it on your own!”
That answer only increased Peter’s confusion, and he uncrossed his arms while looking at his aunt as though she had just presented him with the most absurd reasoning he had ever heard.
— “But WHY? That’s not logical!”
May remained calm, perfectly aware that trying to give him a more detailed explanation would probably only confuse him even more.
— “Don’t try to understand it. That’s just how it is.”
Peter let out a long sigh of annoyance.
Despite all his efforts, he still couldn’t see any logic in what his aunt was trying to tell him.
— “I really don’t get it…”
Silent until then, Uncle Ben watched their exchange with obvious amusement.
He eventually joined in as well, adopting the serious tone of a man about to pass on a genuine life lesson, even though the smile at the corner of his lips clearly betrayed his desire to joke.
— “Peter… take an old man’s advice: if your Aunt May says it, then it’s true. Never forget: women are always right!”
May immediately turned toward him with an affectionate look, clearly delighted by that answer.
— “See, Peter? Your Uncle Ben knows exactly how to talk to women… oh, you’re so charming, sweetheart!”
Smiling brightly, May stood up from her chair and joined Ben to hug him before affectionately covering his face with little kisses.
Faced with that display of affection, Peter almost immediately looked away, making a disgusted face as he decided he had heard more than enough for one day.
— “Ugh… seriously? I’m going up to my room!”
He immediately turned around and started leaving the kitchen, determined to put as much distance as possible between himself and the scene unfolding behind him.
However, before he could completely disappear, May took the opportunity to call out one final piece of advice loudly enough for him to hear from the hallway.
— “And remember this too, Peter: girls love it when a guy takes the lead!”
Ben, still amused by the situation, immediately added his voice to his wife’s.
— “Your aunt’s right, son. Keep that in mind!”
The memory gradually faded from Peter’s mind and May and Ben’s voices slowly gave way to the sounds of the movie theater, until he once again found himself standing in front of Gwen and the decision he was still trying to make.
Peter remained silent for a brief moment, still slightly surprised that a conversation whose exact origin he couldn’t even remember had come back to him today of all days.
Back then, his aunt’s advice had seemed incomprehensible and almost absurd, but faced with Gwen’s indecisive answer, he had to admit it might actually prove useful after all.
— “Honestly… I don’t even remember how Aunt May and I ended up talking about that. But it looks like her advice is going to help me today.”
That thought was enough to make him decide.
Peter pushed aside his hesitation and turned toward Gwen with slightly more confidence than before.
— “Alright… let’s go watch that movie.”
Without giving her time to answer, Peter naturally took Gwen’s hand and led her toward the ticket counter.
The gesture slightly surprised the young girl, but she followed without protesting as they bought two tickets along with a huge bag of popcorn they could share during the movie.
A few minutes later, they entered the theater and chose seats in the center, well-positioned enough to fully enjoy the movie.
Around them, a few couples occupied the nearby rows while several people who had come alone were scattered throughout the darkness, giving the room a relatively calm atmosphere.
When the lights went out and the movie began, Peter quickly discovered the story that would accompany them for the next few hours.
The plot followed two people deeply attracted to one another, but whose relationship was constantly complicated by the mysterious and secret life one of them was leading.
Unable to reveal the full truth to the person he loved, the character seemed to be living a genuine double life and constantly had to juggle his feelings with the secrets he was trying to protect.
Peter stared at the screen for a few seconds, becoming less and less convinced that it could simply be a coincidence.
Sitting in a dark theater beside Gwen, while hiding from her the fact that he spent part of his days behind Spider-Man’s mask, he almost felt like the movie was personally mocking him.
— “A guy with a double life who wants to date a girl… seriously? Is the universe messing with me or what?”
Despite the strange resemblance to his own situation, Peter kept watching the movie while absentmindedly reaching into the bag of popcorn between them.
A few moments later, without noticing that his hand was already inside, Gwen did exactly the same thing.
Their fingers brushed inside the bag and that simple contact, as brief as it was accidental, was enough to make both of them tense up.
Peter slightly turned his head toward her just as Gwen quickly pulled her hand away, her cheeks turning red from embarrassment.
— “A-AHH! Sorry!”
Overwhelmed by embarrassment, Gwen abruptly stood up from her seat without even realizing that her cry had echoed through part of the theater.
Peter, just as embarrassed as she was but much more discreet, immediately tried to reassure her while lowering his voice so as not to disturb the other viewers any further.
— “Oh, uh, don’t worry. It’s fine, but—”
He didn’t have time to finish his sentence.
Behind them, a man sitting beside his girlfriend had clearly lost patience and called out to Gwen in a tone aggressive enough to catch the attention of several people around them.
— “Hey! Can you stop screaming like a crazy person? My girlfriend can’t see anything past your big head!”
The embarrassment already visible on Gwen’s face immediately intensified.
Aware that she had disturbed the movie, she didn’t try to answer and slightly lowered her head as she apologized.
— “Oh! Sorry…!”
She immediately sat back down, deeply embarrassed by the situation, while the man puffed himself up proudly beside his girlfriend, clearly satisfied that he had put Gwen in her place.
Peter, however, hadn’t appreciated the way he had just spoken to her at all.
He remained silent for a few seconds, staring straight ahead, before standing up as well and slowly approaching the man.
— “Peter? Where are you going…?”
Peter didn’t answer immediately.
He simply walked a few steps toward the row behind them and stopped near the man who had just gone after Gwen.
Despite his annoyance, he clearly wasn’t looking to provoke a confrontation and kept his tone perfectly calm when he got the man’s attention.
— “Hey.”
The man looked up at him, visibly surprised to see Peter come over instead of simply returning to his seat.
— “Yeah? What?”
From her seat, Gwen watched the scene with growing concern.
— “Don’t tell me he’s going to…?”
Peter remained facing the man without raising his voice or adopting the slightest aggressive attitude.
He wasn’t trying to intimidate him or create more trouble, but simply make him understand that he had crossed the line.
— “My friend apologized. No need to talk to her like that.”
The man remained speechless for a moment, clearly caught off guard by how calmly Peter had just put him in his place.
— “What…?!”
His girlfriend, on the other hand, seemed to find the situation much more amusing.
She looked Peter up and down before forming a sarcastic smile and turning toward her boyfriend.
— “Oh, honey… look, the little kid wants to play hero.”
The remark immediately seemed to hit the man’s pride, and he straightened slightly in his seat before staring at Peter with much more confidence.
— “Do you even know who I am?!”
— “No, and I don’t want to know. I’m just asking you to be respectful.”
Considering that he had said everything he needed to say, Peter simply turned around and began making his way back toward Gwen.
As far as he was concerned, the incident could have ended perfectly well right there.
Unfortunately, the couple sitting behind them clearly had no intention of letting that happen.
— “You’re really going to let him get away with that? You want me to tell everyone you got put in your place by some kid or what?!”
The provocation immediately achieved its goal.
With his ego wounded and now more concerned about how he looked in front of his girlfriend than about what had actually happened, the man abruptly stood up from his seat and rushed at Peter from behind.
Gwen saw the movement before he did and immediately reacted.
— “Peter! Watch out!”
Alerted by her shout, Peter dodged the attack with a quick movement, letting the man pass beside him without managing to touch him.
The scene immediately caught the attention of the rest of the theater, where several viewers completely stopped watching the movie and turned toward them.
Even the man’s girlfriend looked surprised by how easily Peter had avoided the blow.
— “Did he seriously dodge you or am I imagining things?!”
— “What, n-no, not at all! It’s… I just aimed badly! That’s normal, I can’t see anything in here!”
Clearly embarrassed to have missed Peter so easily, the man immediately searched for an excuse so he wouldn’t lose any more face.
All of the commotion was starting to seriously annoy the other viewers.
Several people who had until then tried to ignore the argument finally spoke up as well.
— “Hey! If you want to fight, take it outside!”
— “Yeah, I didn’t pay for this!”
Instead of calming down in response to the complaints, the man abruptly turned toward the rest of the theater and let his aggression explode.
— “All of you shut the fuck up unless you want me to beat your asses one by one!”
His threat immediately silenced the protests and an icy silence settled over the theater.
The man took advantage of the quiet to turn his attention back toward Peter, pointing firmly at him.
— “You and me. Outside. You’ve got two minutes, otherwise I’m coming back in here and causing trouble.”
Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed his girlfriend by the arm and left the theater with her, leaving behind a particularly tense atmosphere.
Peter remained motionless for a few seconds, aware that this entire situation had started simply because he had wanted to defend Gwen.
Embarrassed that he had indirectly interrupted the movie for all the other viewers, he turned toward them with a genuinely apologetic expression.
— “Uh… sorry, everyone. I didn’t mean for things to go this far.”
He let out a slight sigh before returning to his seat, unable to understand how a simple trip to the movies had once again managed to turn into a problem.
— “Seriously… how am I this unlucky?”
When he reached Gwen, Peter gave her an embarrassed look.
He had only wanted to stand up for her, but he still regretted that his intervention had ended up causing such a scene during their outing.
— “Sorry, Gwen. I didn’t think it would turn out like this.”
Gwen gently shook her head.
— “No, Peter… don’t apologize. You defended me. And even though I would’ve preferred to avoid all this… it means a lot to me.”
Peter’s expression softened slightly when he heard her answer.
— “Don’t thank me. It’s normal.”
Gwen remained silent for a moment before thinking again about the man now waiting for them outside.
Her expression then became slightly more worried.
She especially didn’t want Peter to get involved in a real fight simply because of one inappropriate remark.
— “And about that guy… forget it. Don’t go fight him over this.”
— “I’d like to, but if he comes back, he’ll ruin the movie for everyone here. So I’m just going to… try to calm things down and I’ll be right back.”
Gwen looked at him for a few seconds without answering.
Despite the situation and the risk of facing a clearly violent man, Peter had once again thought about the people around them before thinking about himself.
That attitude was so much like him that she couldn’t stop a certain tenderness from mixing with her concern.
— “That’s so like him. Even in a situation like this, he thinks about others before himself…”
However, there was no way she was going to sit quietly while Peter went to face someone who had openly threatened him all by himself.
An almost enthusiastic smile appeared on her face as she stood up as well.
— “Then I’m coming with you! I’m not letting you go alone.”
Peter and Gwen left the theater room and crossed the lobby before walking down the few steps leading outside.
The moment they reached the sidewalk, they spotted the couple waiting a little farther away.
The man stood facing the entrance, clearly determined to follow through with his provocation, while his girlfriend still wore the same arrogant smile.
Seeing Peter appear despite the threats, she looked him over for a few seconds with amusement.
— “So he actually came… I can’t tell whether I think he’s brave or just really stupid.”
Her boyfriend took a few steps toward them, convinced that the situation was finally going to turn in his favor.
— “I hope you’re ready to get humiliated, kid.”
Peter watched him approach without showing the slightest concern.
Ever since gaining his powers, he knew perfectly well just how enormous the difference in strength was between an ordinary human and himself.
If he really wanted to, a few seconds would probably be enough to put this man out of action, but that thought only strengthened his desire to avoid the fight.
— “I could knock him out in two seconds… but what would be the point? With great power comes great restraint too, after all…”
Peter calmly inhaled and made one last attempt to defuse the situation before it went any further.
— “Listen… I don’t want to fight, so—”
— “Can’t we just drop this?”
Gwen had just interrupted him.
She stepped slightly forward.
— “Miss, couldn’t you calm your boyfriend down? My friend wasn’t trying to make him angry.”
The young woman slowly turned her eyes toward Gwen.
Far from being moved by her attempt to calm things down, she instead seemed to find the situation even more entertaining.
— “Oh no, sweetheart… I’m here for the show. If he wants to fight, he’ll fight.”
Gwen stared at her in silence, feeling her irritation rise as she listened to her speak with that unbearable condescension.
— “Just listening to her makes me want to scratch her eyes out.”
Seeing that Peter still refused to react to his provocations, the man seemed to look for another way to push him over the edge.
His gaze then shifted away from him and settled on Gwen.
— “Your buddy doesn’t want to fight? Then maybe if I hit his girlfriend, that’ll get a reaction out of him.”
Without hesitating any further, he raised his fist toward her.
Gwen barely had time to understand what he was about to do before Peter had already stepped between them.
His hand closed around the man’s fist in mid-motion, stopping the attack dead with astonishing ease.
He didn’t move back even a centimeter and didn’t seem to need the slightest effort to stop the punch.
This time, every trace of lightness disappeared from his expression.
— “If you want to hit me, go ahead. But her… you don’t touch.”
Behind him, Gwen froze.
It wasn’t only the speed with which Peter had just reacted that unsettled her, but especially the ease with which he had stopped the arm of a grown man in full motion.
— “H-He stopped his punch… with one hand?!”
The man’s girlfriend, meanwhile, didn’t seem to understand what had just happened and continued urging him on impatiently.
— “What are you waiting for?! Go!”
The man didn’t answer immediately.
His gaze dropped toward his hand, still trapped in Peter’s, before slowly rising back toward his face.
All of his confidence seemed to have vanished.
He briefly looked at Gwen, then Peter, before realizing that continuing this confrontation was probably not in his best interest.
After a few seconds of hesitation, he pulled himself free and grabbed his girlfriend by the arm.
— “…W-We’re leaving.”
She looked at him in complete confusion.
— “What?! But—”
The man tightened his grip and suddenly raised his voice, more out of humiliation than any real authority.
— “I said: we’re leaving!”
He dragged her away with him and reluctantly walked off, finally abandoning the confrontation he had started himself.
Peter watched them leave for a few moments, still irritated by what he had just witnessed.
— “Of course… They think they’re tough until they run into someone stronger than them. It drives me crazy.”
His irritation disappeared almost immediately, however, when he remembered that Gwen had nearly been punched.
He turned toward her and quickly looked her over, instinctively checking that she was okay.
— “You okay? You’re not hurt?”
Gwen took a few seconds to answer.
She was perfectly fine, but her mind was still stuck on what she had just seen.
Despite that, she eventually gave him a slight smile.
— “Yeah… thanks, Peter. You… you were really impressive…”
The compliment caught Peter off guard and immediately erased the confidence he had shown only seconds earlier.
He looked away in embarrassment.
— “Oh… uh, thanks.”
After a few moments, Peter collected himself.
— “Want to forget the movie? How about getting a drink?”
— “Yeah! Of course. That works for me. Let’s go!”
They then left the area around the movie theater and resumed walking side by side through the streets of New York.
However, unlike Peter, who already seemed ready to leave the incident behind him, Gwen walked with her mind completely elsewhere.
What she had just witnessed had brought back all the questions that had been piling up in her mind for some time, and the more she tried to find a rational explanation, the more the different details seemed to strangely fit together.
— “Now that I think about it…
Peter’s changed over the past few months.
Deep down, he’s always been brave and willing to help others, but…
he wasn’t this strong before.
First, he and Spider-Man talk the same way.
Their voices sound alike.
They have the same injuries.
And he always seems busy.
Even when he’s with me, Harry, or anyone else, he mysteriously disappears.
He never says where he’s going or what he’s doing.
I know it sounds crazy, and even I have a hard time believing it…
but could Peter actually be Spider-Man?
The rumors about him started spreading a few months ago…
exactly when Peter started changing.
Should I ask him?
But even if it were true, would he actually tell me?
And besides…
how could that even be possible?!
Aaaah, I’m so confused!”
After several long minutes, Peter and Gwen finally returned to the Corner Café, where they had met earlier that afternoon.
They each ordered a drink before settling down in a quieter part of the terrace, slightly away from the other customers.
However, ever since they had left the movie theater, Peter had noticed that something about Gwen had changed.
She was still there beside him, but her mind seemed elsewhere, as though some persistent thought was preventing her from truly enjoying the moment.
After watching her for a few moments, he finally spoke to her.
— “Gwen? Everything okay? You seem a little… distracted.”
— “To be honest… there’s something that’s been bothering me…”
She briefly raised her eyes toward Peter and gave him a slightly skeptical look before bringing her drink to her lips and taking a sip.
Peter immediately noticed the strange way she was looking at him, though he couldn’t figure out what could possibly be going through her mind.
— “Want to talk about it? Maybe I can help.”
Gwen gently placed her drink back down in front of her.
— “Actually… I think you’re the only one who can help me clear up this doubt.”
Peter frowned slightly, becoming increasingly intrigued by the direction the conversation was taking.
— “Huh…? What do you mean?”
Gwen hesitated for another few seconds.
The question she was about to ask seemed completely insane, but she had known him long enough that she would rather hear his answer directly than keep imagining all kinds of possibilities.
— “Peter… we’ve known each other for a really long time. We practically grew up together, and we’ve always been close… so I want you to answer me honestly.”
As she spoke, Peter felt a strange nervousness beginning to settle inside him.
Gwen’s unusually serious expression, the careful way she chose her words, and especially the fact that she was emphasizing their relationship immediately made him imagine an entirely different reason behind this conversation.
— “Why does she look so serious…? Is she about to tell me what I think she is…?”
— “I’m saying all this because it’s really been stuck in my head, and I just can’t stop thinking about it…”
— “And… what’s the question…? Because you’re making me a little nervous here,” said Peter.
— “I know this might sound weird, but…”
The longer Gwen took, the more Peter’s stress skyrocketed.
He tried to keep a normal expression in front of her, but his heart was now beating so fast that he could almost hear it pounding inside his chest.
— “My heart… I… I feel like it’s gonna explode!”
Gwen took a small breath, as though gathering her courage one last time before finally asking the question.
— “Peter, are you…”
— “Am I…? Am I what?! Come on!”
— “Are you Spider-Man…?”
For a fraction of a second, Peter felt as though the entire world around him had come to a stop.
The sounds of the terrace, the customers’ conversations, and the bustle of the street seemed to suddenly disappear as he remained completely frozen in front of Gwen.
His heart skipped a beat, and all the nervousness he had felt only seconds earlier was swept away by complete disbelief.
Slowly, every trace of expression vanished from his face as his brain still struggled to process the question she had actually just asked him.
— “…Huh…? Wait… what?”
TO BE CONTINUED.