"Alright, Peter. Saying it like that just sounds too weird. Forget it. Let's give the kid some time..." middle-aged Peter said to Peter.
Even though Peter had said exactly what he himself was thinking, he was already old enough to know there were some things you just could not say out loud. It hurt people's pride too much.
"When we first became Spider-Man, it only took us a few days to fully get a handle on our powers. It's obvious Miles still hasn't mastered his abilities. He can't help us right now, can he?"
Spider-Noir sighed and shook his head.
If the kid really could stop all this, then who among them would willingly throw away their life to stay behind in this universe?
No one.
Even if they were superheroes, this still was not their universe. Their families were still waiting for them back home.
Bang.
The room door shut.
Everyone turned toward it, but there was no one there. Even so, the door had definitely opened and closed on its own.
"See?! I told you the kid can turn invisible!" middle-aged Peter said excitedly, pointing at the door.
"Let him think it over. Maybe after some time, he'll figure it out."
Peter scratched at his back, clearly uncomfortable. His healing factor had already started sealing over the wounds on his body, but that only made everything itch even worse.
"You said all that harsh stuff to him on purpose, didn't you? You were trying to push him."
Middle-aged Peter looked at the smile tugging at Peter's mouth and laughed too. Sure enough, nobody understood him better than himself.
"No. I genuinely look down on him. He tried to steal my girl right in front of me. I can't let that slide."
Peter curled his lip and answered with complete sincerity.
"You really are... the vindictive type..."
"So what if one day I went to your universe and stole your MJ? What would you do then?"
"I think I'd kill you."
"Exactly. The fact that I haven't beaten him up already means I'm being very rational. The guy's already got two childhood friends, and he still wants to chase my girl. Tell me, what exactly is wrong with how I'm handling this?"
Peter shrugged.
"Hey, who exactly is your girl?"
Spider-Gwen obviously knew Peter meant her, but she still shot him a flushed glare.
"You said it yourself. Eight years. I remember that very clearly~"
"Shut up, you jerk! You lied to me for this long and still have the nerve to bring that up?!"
Another fresh round of pinching followed.
Peter dodged while grimacing and enjoying it at the same time, though the movement made his wounds start tearing open again.
Alright, Gwen, what a blessing you are.
"You're hurt?!"
Spider-Gwen immediately noticed something was off with Peter. Not caring who was watching, she pulled open his shirt, exposing the scars across his back. Most of them had already scabbed over, but after getting pulled at just now, they had started bleeding again.
"Just some minor injuries. I got into a fight with the Ultimate Green Goblin." Peter answered awkwardly.
And yes, technically that was true.
He really had fought him.
It was just that he definitely could not win.
The full-strength Ultimate Spider-Man of this world had never managed to take down the Ultimate Green Goblin, so there was no way Peter, running around with his half-finished strength, could do it either. If not for his cheat abilities, he would have been dead already.
"Peter, that doesn't look minor at all..."
Aunt May knew better than anyone what it meant to be Spider-Man. The Ultimate Peter of this world had always come home covered in injuries too. She had seen it all and suffered right along with him.
"With my recovery rate, it won't take long."
Peter tried to reassure her.
"Alright, we need to rebuild the system and shut the quantum collider down. Hand me that broken little thing, middle-aged Peter."
Peter held out his hand to his older, heavier counterpart. Realistically, besides Peni, who probably had incredibly advanced tech knowledge, he was the only one there who really knew how to work with this kind of stuff. After all, while everyone else leaned toward biology, he had gone down the path of technology.
He took the key, then looked at Aunt May.
"I assume we've got somewhere to fix this, right, Aunt May~"
"Follow me."
Aunt May's expression turned serious.
She led them all to the shed in the backyard. After a series of surprisingly slick moves, the shed lit up with multicolored lights and revealed a giant elevator hidden inside. Everyone rode it down into the basement.
And the basement was packed wall to wall with things.
All kinds of Spider-Suits.
All kinds of advanced equipment.
Peter's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
The moment he got back to his own universe, he was absolutely building himself a secret base like this.
It was way too cool.
"This should be useful."
Spider-Gwen pulled out a flash drive. It contained the data they had downloaded from Fisk Tower, which had also gotten them chased by Doctor Octopus.
"Perfect. Peni, I'm counting on you. You handle the override program. I'll fix the little gadget."
"Got it!"
Peni Parker clenched her fist and shouted energetically.
She took the flash drive Spider-Gwen had recovered from Fisk Tower, pulled up the collider data, and started creating the override key.
That was the shutdown program for the collider.
As long as it was plugged into the terminal, it would stop the experiment and shut the collider down completely.
Of everyone there, Peni Parker was the youngest, but her knowledge was easily among the most advanced. She came from an era of mechs, where technology had already reached ridiculous heights. Building an override key was about as difficult for her as drinking water.
The others stayed out of Peni's and Peter's work.
Compared to what those two were doing, everyone else was hopelessly out of their depth, so it was better not to get in the way.
Instead, the rest of them gathered off to the side and talked.
After a while, Spider-Gwen sighed.
"What Peter said to Miles was way too harsh. Do you think he'll be able to take it?"
"Relax. Just give the kid some time. He'll figure it out."
Middle-aged Peter tried to reassure her.
"Maybe what we said was too harsh, but it was still true. He shouldn't be getting dragged into this yet."
Peter Porker said it with unusual calm.
"But in the end, he really was just trying to help us."
Gwen still looked worried.
"Until he understands the situation and the powers he actually has, he'll never understand what danger really is. And Gwen, you can tell that Black kid's got feelings for you, right?"
Peter said it casually while wearing protective goggles and repairing the key, though there was clearly a trace of jealousy in his tone.
"Are you jealous, Peter~"
Spider-Gwen stepped lightly over to his side, smiling with obvious amusement.
"Why would I be jealous? I'm doing great. I met an amazing girl in this universe. I'll introduce you to her someday."
Peter said this while snapping the outer casing back onto the key and plugging it into a nearby high-tech console to begin repairing the internal program.
"Who?! Who is she?!"
Spider-Gwen immediately bristled like an angry cat. She had only meant to tease him a little, but now it felt like someone had stolen her house out from under her.
"She's the daughter of Police Commissioner Stacy. Her name's Gwen. She's a really great cop. And just so you know, she's got more curves than you."
Peter glanced at Spider-Gwen's still-needing-a-second-growth-spurt figure and kept typing away.
"This world's me?!"
"I never thought this version of me would become a cop..."
"Yeah, I didn't see that one coming either."
"So what did you and she do?! Walk around together, eat out, go see a movie?! You never even did those things with me. Don't tell me you actually did that with her!"
Now Spider-Gwen really was jealous.
"No need to overthink it. We didn't do any of that. I was just homeless for a night, so I crashed at her place."
"Just?"
"In separate rooms."
"What, did you want us sleeping in the same room?!"
Spider-Gwen's cheeks went red. She was genuinely furious now.
Dense idiot. Rotten idiot. Stupid idiot.
So now you want to go be with that other Gwen?
Wait, no. Isn't that just me pushing away the guy I like?
That would be completely brain-dead...
(End of Chapter)
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