Chapter 25

[Third Person's PoV]

Peter fell from the sky, landing in front of the Crimson Ogres' base that Gwen went to. The ground beneath him cracked due to the force of his landing, but he paid no attention to that; the only thing that mattered was Gwen's safety.

He started making his way inside the base. Once inside, he saw multiple goons tied up and knocked out in Gwen's webbing. Although he wanted to be proud of what he was seeing, his main priority was Gwen's safety.

As he walked a few feet ahead, he spotted a guy wearing a blue ogre mask a few feet away, aiming a rocket launcher at Gwen's encased body.

Peter shot his web towards the guy and pulled himself towards him, aiming his feet towards the torso. When he made contact, he was sent flying back, crashing against the wall.

As he crashed against the wall, blood splashed from his mouth as he started coughing. Peter slowly started walking towards him.

(A/N: 🎶 🎵 Where you go I go, what you see I see 🎶 🎵 AND THE SKY FALLS AND IT CRUMBLES 🎶🎵)

Peter knelt towards the blue mask guy, looked him in the eye, and said in a cold voice, "No one, and I repeat, no one messes with my woman." Peter then punched him right on his mouth, breaking both the mask and his teeth, knocking him out completely.

Peter sighed as he got up and went towards Gwen's direction. He knelt down once again and put a hand on Gwen's ice. "It's cold... Arnny, tell me her condition and what happened."

"Yes, Father...." Arnny then went and explained and showed him everything that happened through Gwen's perspective.

"It's like her body went into a mild hibernation; her heart rate is slow, it was like a defense mechanism. Father, can I make a hypothesis about what is happening?"

Peter, while slowly caressing the ice, nodded his head.

"I believe the spider's venom might not have undergone complete integration into your bloodstream. When both you and Ms. Stacy initially demonstrated your abilities, scarcely a day had passed since the spider bite. This suggests that your powers might still be evolving or developing, as the venom continues its gradual assimilation within your biology. It could potentially lead to further enhancements or undiscovered facets of your abilities over time."

"I see, you may be right. When we first got bitten, I was way too excited about the prospect of having superpowers. I hadn't considered that possibility. But how can she create ice? It doesn't make sense, and it shouldn't be possible. Ice isn't something really related to a spider."

"I can retort that lightning isn't either, Father."

'Lightning? How could she possibly know about that? I haven't even mentioned it before.' "What do you mean, lightning?"

"I see, so you weren't aware of it. Well, you see, Father, due to your high emotional distress, lightning started manifesting from your body, helping you move faster. Here, I can get a CCTV footage of the event," Arnny said as she brought out a video of Peter swinging through the city at a fast speed.

(Image)

'I see, I got a lightning, cool. And it's blue and black. New color scheme?' "But that still doesn't explain how Gwen was able to develop ice-related powers."

"This is only a hypothesis, but the spider's venom could have contained unique compounds or proteins that, when introduced into Ms. Stacy's bloodstream, triggered a reaction at the genetic level. This reaction might involve a specific gene or set of genes associated with temperature regulation or manipulation.

These venom-induced changes could potentially activate dormant or previously inactive genetic pathways related to the body's response to cold. The venom's components might bind to receptors or enzymes in Gwen's cells, initiating a cascade of molecular events that lead to the expression of proteins capable of manipulating temperature.

This speculative process could involve the modification of cellular mechanisms responsible for regulating heat transfer, altering the behavior of proteins involved in thermal regulation, or even stimulating the creation of specialized structures within her cells capable of generating or controlling cold temperatures. We would need to do a blood test to really make sure, though."

Peter just nodded while still caressing the ice. "Just wait a little longer; once I take care of him, we'll go home."

Peter then stood up and walked towards the large metal door that clearly led to the main office of whoever was in charge. Peter punched the door to open, but his fist tore right through it. "Oops. It looks like I don't know my own strength," Peter said plainly.

Henrick jumped back in shock as Peter's hand just went right through the metal door. Peter slid his hand out of the hole and just ripped it off its hinges and threw it on the floor.

As the door reached the floor, it made a loud bang, showing just how heavy the door really was.

"Normally, this is the part where I start making quips about your appearance and the situation, but I'm not feeling really neighborly right now. Usually, I would be your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, but right now I'm just Spider-Man," Peter said as he advanced towards Henrick, his footsteps leaving imprints on the floor, marking his determined stride toward him.

"What has my gang done to you for two spider-related vigilantes to be coming after us?" Henrick said as he got into a fighting position.

"At first, we came looking for you since your little leprechauns went looking for gold, but then it became personal."

"The hell? You came to us and picked a fight, and just because one of you got injured and wasn't up to the task, you're going to get mad and come looking for revenge?"

"You are right, it's our fault this happened. We were over our head and went picking a fight with someone we weren't ready to face due to our inexperience, and it almost got us killed. But our intentions were never to kill you. It was to stop you.

I have no reasonable explanations for it, and I don't really need one. I don't care that it was our fault in the first place. The only reason I need is that you hurt the woman I love. What other reason does a man ever need?"

"I guess I can respect that," Henrick said, followed by him running towards Peter with his fists in a defensive boxing position.

"But just because I respect it doesn't mean I'll allow you to do as you please and disrespect me in my turf."

He started sending multiple jabs and punches towards Peter. Peter, using his spider senses, dodged them while redirecting Henrick's fist elsewhere. Peter sent a kick towards him, which Henrick blocked slightly.

Lifting both arms when Peter sent the kick, although it hit the metal gauntlets, Henrick was sent flying back, breaking a table with his body as he crashed against the wall.

He looked at his shaking hands at this point. 'What strength and power! I know I saw him break through the metal door with just his fist, but still.'

He then tried to get up, but Peter webbed up his hands with multiple webs. He tried to lift up his hands with his gauntlets, but the webs were too many and too strong for him to do anything; he was stuck on the ground.

Peter shot two webs towards the wall and pulled himself forward towards Henrick, delivering a knee right to his face, breaking the Ogre mask and his nose.

Peter picked him up by his shirt and tossed him out of the room and out to where Gwen was.

While getting up from the floor, he held his face. "Shit, my mask! DAMMIT, NOT MY MASK!"

When Peter approached him, Henrick spiraled into a drunken rage, his emotions overtaking him. He ran towards Peter without any form of defense and started swinging madly at him.

Peter sent webs towards his hands and pulled them down to the ground, but Henrick tried to do the same thing he did with Gwen. Luckily, Peter saw what happened and didn't let that happen. Peter pulled him towards him, and just as he was about to attack, Henrick's counter-attacked.

When Peter pulled Henrick towards him, Henrick cocked back his fist and sent it towards Peter. Peter's Spidey-Senses tingled, warning him of the danger.

Peter let go of the webs, but it was too late. By the force of which Peter pulled him, Henrick was already in front of him, not giving Peter any time to think of a counter-measure.

Henrick's metal gauntlet punched Peter right across his face, leaving him slightly disoriented. Henrick adjusted himself when he landed and sent another punch towards Peter's stomach, knocking the air out of him and making him start coughing.

Henrick then stomped his foot on Peter's to stop him from flying back and started wailing on Peter, throwing punches left and right until blood started coming out of Peter's mask.

Peter extended his hand, stopping one metal gauntlet and then the other. Peter did what Gwen wanted to do before she got shot. He jumped and kicked Henrick right in the center of his chest, sending him flying backward.

Peter kept up by web-shotting himself forward. When he arrived, he got on top of Henrick and started punching him across the face repeatedly.

"We're about to upgrade your looks to Handsome Squidward level, up in here," Peter quipped.

The more Peter punched him, the madder he got when he thought about Gwen's condition. Peter, in all his anger, cocked his fist all the back, and due to his emotions, his fist started sparking blue and black lightning.

While looking at the face of the unconscious Henrick, Peter swung down his fist at full strength and speed, but changed its direction at the last second, missing his head by a few inches.

The entire area's floor cracked and broke, with lightning flashing between the cracks. Peter started breathing heavily due to his tiredness, injury, and almost killing him.

'Remember what Uncle Ben said, don't let the anger control me, not let it consume me. Deep breaths, Peter, calm yourself,' Peter thought.

Peter wrapped Henrick in thick webs along with his sidekick who had the blue mask. He went towards Gwen's encased body, wrapped her in webs, and put her on his back, webbing her up to look like a backpack.

'This place is decently big. I'm 100 percent sure it has janitor closets and cleaning utensils. Now I just need to find them,' Peter thought as he started looking around.

When he found them, he tapped the side of his head. "Arnny, go through the footage and show me all the places where Gwen and I lost any blood. I don't want to find any clones of mine later down the line."

"Yes, Father. Scanning Footage... here are all the moments where you lost blood and their location," said Arnny.

With another sigh, Peter picked up the mop and got to work. When he finished, he looked at the tied-up goons, nodded his head, and turned invisible. "Arnny, contact Officer Cooper and Captain Stacy about whom we captured, and make it untraceable."

"Of course, Father."

Peter left with Gwen on his back, heading towards the base he had just come from. When he arrived, he saw a few cop cars making their way towards the base.

'Shit,' he thought as he picked up the speed. When he arrived, he quickly cleaned up all his blood with the cleaning utensils and quickly left as the police got out of their cars, sighing in relief. With one last look towards the base, he headed back towards their hideout.