Hovering in the air, New Goblin Harry finally steadied himself. As he watched Peter dodging with webbing, hesitation flickered in his eyes. But in the end, he still pulled two orange Pumpkin Bombs from his pocket and said with a crazed look on his face,
"Then go explain it to my dad!"
The two Pumpkin Bombs were already right in front of him.
At the last second, Peter fired out two strands of webbing and flung them upward, then kept swinging away instead of fighting back.
A deafening explosion followed.
Two massive flashes lit up the sky, bright enough to turn the whole area into daylight for an instant.
"Stop running, Peter!"
Harry pulled out a long blade and slashed at him. Peter's forearm blades snapped out automatically to meet it, and sparks flew everywhere as metal clashed again and again.
Peter's Spider Arm Blades were made of Adamantium, so their durability was absurd.
Harry's sword was forged from rare metal too, but it was still a step below.
They exchanged more than a dozen blows.
Peter's blades remained completely intact, while Harry's sword had already been chipped in several places.
"So you've got new gear now, Peter! Even though your strength has dropped, this equipment makes you faster than before, doesn't it?!"
"Sorry, Harry! I know this is unfair to you, but I really think you need to calm down!"
Peter pulled up the system panel in his mind and selected the Spider-Man Dark Suit.
A full-body holographic outline of the suit appeared in front of him, and as he passed through it, the classic red and blue on his body turned black. Only the eye lenses remained red, and even his fingers began to sharpen into claw-like points.
"I knew you never got rid of that damned black suit! So what if it changed a little?!"
Harry sneered, clearly assuming it was still the alien symbiote suit.
What he didn't react to in time was the pair of web shots that landed on him.
He instinctively tried to rip them away, but in the next instant, numbness flooded through his whole body. Then all his strength vanished, and it felt as if his heart itself had been paralyzed.
He dropped straight out of the air.
"Damn it!"
"Hey, man, hold on! I can catch you!"
Peter had already dropped to the rooftop below and opened his arms like he really meant to catch him.
And to be fair, he almost did.
By almost, that meant he only missed by a few yards.
Harry slammed into the roof, rolled several times, then glared up at Peter with pure fury. He wanted to curse him out, but for a moment he didn't even know where to begin.
"Alright... pretend I didn't say that."
Peter walked over slowly, trying to help him up, only to get shoved away.
"Don't touch me, you bastard!"
"Harry, listen to me! I am Peter, but I'm absolutely not the Peter Parker you know! Here, look!"
Peter dismissed the suit back into the system.
Now wearing nothing but his suit and tie, he stood fully exposed in front of Harry.
Harry froze.
"Wait. Kid, who the hell are you?"
Alright, he had to admit it.
This kid was annoyingly handsome.
But Harry absolutely did not know him.
So why was he Spider-Man too?
He definitely wasn't this universe's Spider-Man. That Peter had died.
So...
This really must be a Peter Parker from another universe.
Which meant he'd been chasing the wrong guy this whole time.
"So you finally calmed down..."
Sweating hard, Peter dropped down and sat beside Harry. He could finally relax a little now.
"You're Peter Parker from another world?"
"Yeah."
"Why is every Peter Parker in every world Spider-Man?"
"I'd love to know that too, but that's not even always true. Yesterday I met a pig, a little girl, and a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old Black kid. They were all Spider-Men too."
Peter said it lightly. With Harry finally calm, the whole situation felt easier to deal with.
"Fine. No matter which Peter you are, you're all equally talkative."
"Hey, what exactly did you do to me? Why can't I use any strength at all?!"
Harry tried to stand, but his body kept wobbling. If the serum hadn't strengthened him, he probably wouldn't have been able to move at all.
"Just high-output paralyzing webbing. You'll recover in a bit."
Peter sighed.
"Alright. I'll tell you what I know. Just don't hate Peter. And don't hate me either. In every universe, Peter Parker never truly wants to hurt Harry. Most of the time, he just has no good options."
"Start with your story. Then I'll tell you mine."
...
"So you're saying the father in my universe tried to kill Peter and ended up killing himself by mistake?! How do you even know that?!"
"And I look exactly like the Harry in your world? That guy's actually a nerd? And he accidentally lost an arm..."
"And wait... you don't like Mary Jane?! But in your world I'm the one dating her?! Well, alright, in my world she and I were together at first. Then your version of Peter stole her from me."
Half an hour later, the two of them sat with the sun behind them, leaning against the rooftop wall while laying everything out from beginning to end.
Peter had needed to say sorry for a long time.
But he knew he still couldn't say it to the Harry in his own universe.
He was afraid Harry wouldn't be able to take it, and that the two of them would end up as complete strangers.
So having a Harry here who could hear him out at least eased a little of the guilt in his chest.
"In my universe, I was trying my hardest to get the two of you together. Besides, I like Gwen."
Peter shot him a look.
"Gwen? I vaguely remember one. The one you kissed while you were in the Spider-Man suit?"
Peter knew exactly who Harry meant: the blonde from Spider-Man 3 in Tobey Maguire's universe.
That Gwen was beautiful too. Sexy too. Capable too. The kind of woman who could handle herself in any social situation.
And just like always, her name was Gwen.
Gwen Stacy.
Across universe after universe, Gwen, Peter, Harry, and M.J. always seemed hopelessly tangled together. That was the strange charm of the multiverse. One main axis, countless branches. Similar, but never quite the same.
"It's not like your universe. In mine, Gwen and I were childhood friends. The four of us grew up together."
"Peter, if you ever make it back to your universe, you have to stop my father from injecting that damned serum. That serum ruined both of us. It destroyed us and turned us into enemies."
"That's the future I wanted least, and it still happened to me, Peter..."
"If only we had some alcohol. I'd really like a drink right now. Something strong enough to make me forget all this crap."
Harry let out a long breath.
Peter smiled, leaped off the rooftop, and came back five minutes later with two bottles of XO in hand. He gave them a little shake in front of Harry.
"Problem solved."
Harry didn't refuse. He took one, twisted it open, and clinked it lightly against Peter's before taking a drink.
"You want one?"
Peter pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket.
"No. I don't smoke."
Then Harry looked at him oddly.
"Wait. You're underage, right? You sure smoking and drinking is fine?"
This Peter was completely different from the one Harry knew.
"Only once in a while."
Peter slipped a cigarette between his lips. The flame flickered, and the smell of tobacco spread in the air.
"I promise."
"Mm."
The two of them understood each other without needing to say more.
"That suit is ugly as hell."
"Hey, I think it's pretty good. It was discounted too. Great value for the price."
"What are you planning to do now?"
Harry took another drink and asked it without warning.
"Go find your father. I mean this universe's Norman. I've got a feeling he's connected to the quantum collider somehow."
"Hey, that's exactly what I was going to do, except..."
"What collider?"
"You really are a complete idiot."
Peter gave him a tired look.
"I think Kingpin and Norman are the reason all of us ended up in this universe."
"Who the hell is Kingpin?"
"A bald guy shaped like a meatball. Huge, ugly, and all muscle."
"That sounds disgusting."
"It looks worse."
Harry burst out laughing.
(End of Chapter)
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