Chapter 26 - Secret Friends

The next thing I knew, Gwen and I were on top of a building, far away from all the chaos downtown and what had happened at the Empire State Building.

The city lights hadn't changed at all from a few minutes ago, but for Gwen and me, everything had changed. Our breathing was heavy and our bodies ached. Hand's ninjas weren't the only ones who had been hit.

Gwen was leaning against a ventilation shaft on the roof of the building. She was still trying to pull herself together. Her hands were shaking slightly and her torso was rising and falling rapidly. Of course, Gwen wasn't just Spiderwoman, she was also a person who got tired.

"Are you okay?" I asked, lowering my mask so she could hear me better.

She raised her head and looked at me. "I'm fine... And you?"

"Nothing I can't handle... It's just a shame we left empty-handed after getting so close."

"What do you mean?"

She pulled something out of the sleeve of the tight clothing she was wearing, showing an object as she held it in her fingertips. A small pendrive. No, it was tiny to say the least.

"I managed to get this into Murdock's computer while you were thinking about the password. I stole all the data on it. The only problem is that the data is encrypted. It won't be that easy to access everything at once. It's probably a lot of files, but at least we got something."

I just stared at the tiny piece of metal for a moment, then let out a sigh of relief and a short, exasperated laugh.

"Hahaha... This is really great." My legs finally gave way, and I fell backwards, sitting on the hard floor of the roof.

"Yeah, it's great, but it's not enough." She said seriously, looking at the horizon and the city.

From my perspective, her silhouette contrasted with the bright city and made me feel the melancholy she probably felt.

"What do you mean?"

Gwen was silent for a moment, still staring at New York, as if searching for a way to make it easier to say what was on her mind.

"Murdock knows who I am now." She said. "I took every possible precaution. I haven't told anyone but my father who I am. Yet somehow Murdock knew about me."

She turned to me, and in the next instant, her hands went to her neck, where the part that connected the mask of her uniform to her body part was.

"That's why..." Then she began to lift that part of the mask, and a moment later she removed the white hood, revealing her blonde hair and blue-gray eyes. "...you deserve to know who I am..."

For some reason, Gwen seemed even more beautiful than before. I couldn't tell if it was because of the sweat or because she was shaking her hair to straighten it after taking off the mask. My jaw dropped, and I stared unblinkingly.

She turned her face the other way, slightly flushed. "You don't have to pretend you don't know... From the moment Murdock mentioned Captain Stacy. You probably already made the connection, didn't you?"

I didn't say anything for a moment. Part of me wanted to deny it, to say I'd never connected the dots, but that would be lying too much. I nodded slowly, confirming what she already knew.

"Yes... I suspected it. In fact, I suspected it ever since I first heard your voice after we left the warehouse. You can't make it much thicker."

"Eh? Really? I wanted to tell you as soon as I saw you in the bowling alley and saw your eyes... But I had to be absolutely sure that I could trust you first. Because the more people know, the more..."

At that moment, with Gwen sitting next to me, talking with a slightly red face and a smile at the corner of her mouth, everything stopped for me, and not figuratively.

Literally everything stopped.

The world around me turned gray, or rather colorless.

"Wh-what's going on?" I asked myself, noticing that the city had suddenly gone silent.

Then I looked to my left and saw a screen floating by.

[Congratulations! You have completed the Main Quest "Secret Friends"!]

[5,000 Card Points have been added to your account.]

[You have received +5 "Mysterious Cards of Uncommon skills".]

[You have received +1 Assimilation slot.]

I was relieved to see that the reason time had stopped was just because of the system.

"Phew, so this happens when I complete a main quest. What a scare... The rewards were very good, well worth the effort".

[Warning! Now that you've completed your first main quest, you're ready for the first test of the Card Extraction System.]

"First test?"

[Your first test as a beta tester user will begin in... 48 hours. Be prepared and collect as many cards as you can.]

When I finished reading this last message, it automatically closed, and the world around me instantly took on color. The clouds in the night sky began to move again, and I heard Gwen finish.

"... dangerous stays." She said.

I was still in a bit of shock, surprised and scared at the same time. What did the system mean by 'first test'? Was it an extra mission, a challenge, or something else?

I'd seen dozens, maybe even hundreds, of manga with systems, but this one was very different from the ones I was used to.

"Lucas, are you okay? You look paler than when we fought Murdock." Gwen asked.

I slowly turned my head towards her, and my eyes met hers. This was the first time I'd been able to look into her eyes when she knew who I was and who she was, so it was different in a way. I felt like I could trust her, maybe because she had told me her secret identity and I didn't want to lie anymore.

So I put my head down, looked at the black concrete of the terrace and said:

"Gwen, why didn't you ask me about my powers before? Aren't you curious?"

She frowned, surprised at my sudden entry into the subject. "I haven't asked because I don't think it's my place to ask such questions. In fact, you haven't asked mine either."

"You're Spider-Woman. Everyone knows what your powers are."

"But it's different...you said you were a mutant. I'm not a mutant. I-I got my powers after being bitten by a strange spider."

I put my hand to the back of my head. "I'm not a... mutant."

"But you're clearly stronger than most people, and you still have... those eyes of yours."

"I know. I'm not an ordinary person either... I'll be honest with you, Gwen. I'm from another universe, a universe just like the one we're in, but different in some ways and maybe a little better." I revealed, though I was hesitant and unsure of how she would react.

I didn't tell her the whole truth because that would be too much even for Gwen, someone used to the multiverse.

There was a long second of silence after my revelation, a single second, and then Gwen took both my hands, which made me look at her. Then I heard a voice that radiated happiness.

"a-another universe?! So there really are others? That's really cool!"

"What? You're not mad at me?"

"Why should I be?"

"Because I lied to you."

"It's okay... Sure, it's not nice, but sometimes it's necessary. I'm probably the biggest liar in town. And it makes a lot of sense that you're from another universe, because you've only been in school for six months and..."

"Actually, I've only been in this world for one day."

"Eh? Really? What do you mean?"

"This 'skill' of mine to transport myself between universes allows me to 'possess' the bodies of other Lucas Hayes, it seems."

"That explains why you've changed so much from one day to the next. Honestly, you used to be a bit of a jerk like Flash, and that's why you got along so well, but I've noticed that you've changed since our conversation at the karaoke. Anyway, is that your power? How do you have super strength?"

"Honestly, my power is complicated to explain. Let's just say that I have the skill to turn things into cards and use them. Be it skills like super strength or items."

"I don't understand, but would it be possible for you to show me your universe? How different is it?"

I put a hand to my chin and closed my eyes, pretending to think, but actually asking mentally:

'System, would it be possible to show Gwen how Earth-616 looks like?'

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