Chapter 125 - 125

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….

"Excellent," I diverted the eyes of any random witnesses and jumped down onto the tracks after the kid. A second later, the girl was beside us.

We walked about thirty meters before a wide staircase leading even further down appeared on the left side of the tunnel.

It was getting dark, so I conjured a small wisp of light above us, providing enough illumination for my companions.

Soon, a grated partition with a door and a combination lock appeared. There was about a meter of unbarred space between the top of it and the ceiling, and Miles immediately hurried to show off some cool parkour, climbing over using his spider powers.

Once on the other side, he even tried to strike a stylish pose with a meaningful look for our benefit.

The provocation worked on Gwen; half a second later she was on the other side, having done it twice as fast and five times more gracefully.

But fine, I'm nitpicking, it's stupid to compare an experienced pro to a beginner.

"I've been meaning to ask: are you a ballerina?" Having opened the unpowered lock with telekinesis and walking through the door like a civilized person, I inquired of Stacy.

"I used to do rhythmic gymnastics," Gwen answered, her eyes tracking the door closing "by itself" behind me.

"And then decided that with spider powers, it wasn't sporting anymore?" I guessed at the reason for the "used to."

"Not immediately," the blonde grew sad, turning toward the corridor. "At first I even performed on TV shows, but then, because of my fame, my friend decided to become special too, and turned into a monster... and died because of me."

"I see..." Judging by the timbre of her voice and her body language, the guilt was by no means imagined and still caused her pain, although the wound on her soul had already managed to scar over with the passage of time.

"Her friend was Peter Parker. He turned into the Lizard," Miles deemed it necessary to enlighten me.

On the one hand, this was interesting information for me. On the other hand, it was clearly not the information Gwen wanted to voice or remember right now.

That was evident from the fact that at the guy's remark, she just kept walking forward without turning around.

"I understand," genuinely turning some things over in my mind, I started following the girl.

I don't think I'd be mistaken in assuming that, without gaining Spider-Man's powers, the Peter Parker of her world remained a bullied, loser nerd, the kind who can neither assert themselves in society nor find a group where they are accepted for who they are.

The fact that he miraculously managed to befriend the beautiful Gwen probably didn't bring him much joy, because whatever you say about feelings, when a girl is ten, maybe twenty times stronger than you, that's a barrier to a relationship.

The reverse is possible, although even there one must exercise caution in certain moments, but when you are a man in a patriarchal society, and an insecure weakling at that, and your girlfriend is Spider-Woman... that's sad.

And I'm absolutely certain Gwen wasn't his girlfriend, which only poured oil on the fire. And since he became the Lizard of her world, guessing the guy's motivation for taking the mutagen wasn't difficult at all...

"Here, it was right here," our guide stopped in a heavily tagged room we entered after several turns down the corridor.

Miles's voice shattered the uncomfortable silence, but it rapidly began to return. Oh no, that won't do!

"So, the immature youth lured the pretty girl and her respectably dressed male companion into a dark, sinister room covered in graffiti..." I began with inspiration.

"Pfft!" Gwen choked back a laugh, hastily covering her mouth. Yes, I love to play with my voice, I know how, and I practice it.

"Hey, man! You asked me to show you the way!!!" our guide protested again.

"That's what I'm saying! Hurry up and show us, where is the spider?"

"Here?" the guy walked up to one of the walls and bent over the dead body of a small spider.

"Hmm..." noticing my target, I focused my perception on it and... sighed heavily. "Fucking time loops..."

"What are you talking about?" Miles didn't understand.

"You see, kid," at that moment, the rainbow ripple already familiar to everyone present ran through the dead arachnid, "this guy got here because of the collider."

"But... but he bit me before Fisk turned the collider on!" he was surprised.

"If you've forgotten, I was also displaced to last week. I already told you," Stacy shot him a rather displeased look.

"Ah, right, you guys didn't see Octavius's formulas... Basically, this device drags a victim through space-time, but there's a scatter at the exit point, give or take a couple of miles and a couple of days. So you were bitten by a Spider that was pulled here by a 'door between worlds' that hadn't even activated yet. And not just any Spider!" I examined the dead arthropod.

"Yeah, yeah, I already figured out it was a superpowered alien from another dimension!" Miles replied, slightly annoyed. "Did we get what we need?"

"Ahem, yes, but actually, I wanted to say something else."

"Like what?"

"That this was a very authoritative Spider, just look at it! It tattooed the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything on its belly."

"Your humor is so subtle it's invisible!" the guy fumed, while Gwen...

"Pfft, you're right!" ...perfectly understood the joke and laughed.

"There it is, the difference between an educated lady, a police captain's daughter, and... hmm, but you're a cop's son too. Oh, then there should be another racist joke here!"

"Go to hell!" Morales deigned to take offense.

"Miles, wait, maybe Adams and his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy just don't exist in your universe," Gwen tried to calm him down.

"That's not the point!" Miles threw up his hands. "What is wrong with all of you?! Peter kept brushing off the problem at first, then that black-and-white guy started throwing me on the floor, the rest piled on, and now this guy is trying to humiliate me with every other word! What, do you have a problem with Black people?!" This last part was directed at me.

"That's exactly the point, I don't have a problem with them, I had absolutely nothing to do with slavery in America, so I bear no moral responsibility for it, which is why I have every right to joke about the topic. But if you want a complete answer," I set my cane aside so it froze in a vertical position, "it's to keep from going crazy."

"What?" Morales blinked in confusion.

"The behavior of your superpowered brethren," summoning a suitable glass container from the pocket dimension, I carefully placed the spider inside.

"You see, any superhero constantly faces a whole bunch of the most nerve-wracking and unpleasant situations. If you don't learn to treat everything with humor, you'll go crazy very quickly on this job."

"And then comes professional deformation, and habits developed to distract opponents, forcing them to make mistakes or rush into reckless attacks in a fit of rage, start slipping into everyday life."

"Add to that the fact that Spider-Men are, for the most part, loners. Whether it happened by chance or it's all due to instincts inherited from the spider, and spiders, by the way, are not pack animals," I warn the guy, just in case he didn't know.

"The fact remains: it's hard for you guys to work in a team. So to speak, you're constantly drawn to spin your web away from your neighbors. So the guys weren't pressing you out of malice, but, to their detriment, they didn't press you enough."

"What?" Gwen shook her head, while Miles stared wide-eyed. "I thought you were leading up to saying it was wrong, but instincts can't always be fought!"

…

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