Chapter 29: The Twisted Wheel of Fate

A sleepless night found Gwen tossing and turning. Whenever she closed her eyes, the horrifying visage of the zombified Peter would haunt her thoughts.

His putrid breath, grotesque decayed visage, and those revolting teeth.

Gwen knew that zombies looked like this, and no one would call them attractive, especially when a person lacked upper and lower lips. But she couldn't help but deepen her aversion to Peter.

Unable to endure it any longer, Gwen decided to put on her Spider-Woman costume and set out to find Peter.

This time, she didn't encounter another "Zombie Peter #2." She found Peter immediately as soon as she left her place.

However, her timing seemed off.

Gwen struggled to describe the situation. Peter was lying face up on a pile of garbage in the alley behind his house.

And standing before him was that fiery redhead, looking even more seductive than Gwen herself. She gazed at Peter, concerned, and asked, "Peter! Did you just swing on a spider thread, crawl up a four-story wall, and then fall down?"

Peter, starting to babble, replied, "Uh, miss, are you sure you've got the right person? I'm not that..."

"Don't play games with me! I'm Mary Jane Watson! Your Aunt Anna's friend! I just parted ways with your aunt at your doorstep," Mary Jane interrupted, hands on her hips, and gave Peter a direct ultimatum.

Peter's eyes were vacant, and this was simply a bolt from the blue. After gaining these superpowers, he had many thoughts, like wearing a mask like Spider-Woman, doing acts of heroism. But why was his grand plan being exposed before it even began?

"Shh! Stop it! I'm having a little issue here. Can you please keep it a secret for me?"

"Sure! Are you... the new Spider-Man?" Mary Jane asserted dominantly.

Peter, who had been feeling somewhat weak, deflated further. His abilities were just a carbon copy of Spider-Woman's!

"I guess... I am."

"Do you want me to keep this a secret? How about letting me be your backup? Every superhero has a support team, right?"

"Sure..."

Maybe this was fate guiding them. After the initial shock wore off, Peter and Mary Jane found themselves chatting and getting along surprisingly well. For some reason, Gwen felt a chill watching them from the rooftop.

"Hmph!" She grunted softly, turned around, and went back to her room.

The next morning, Gwen worked hard to calm herself down. If she had been somewhat afraid before, last night's encounter made her worry if Peter had actually turned into a zombie and died right in front of her. But seeing Peter clumsily climbing into her father George's car, she breathed a sigh of relief.

However, the thought that Mary Jane had a bigger bust than her left Gwen feeling disgusted. "Uh, Gwen, what's wrong with you?" Peter asked.

"I strongly suggest you take a look at yourself," she said, concealing her thoughts well, as she took out a small mirror from her backpack.

Peter saw his disheveled appearance in the mirror and noticed his buttons were all crooked. "Sorry, Gwen."

George, sitting in the driver's seat, turned to him and playfully teased, "Hey, Peter, no girl would be happy seeing you like this."

He had no idea that his precious daughter and Peter were drifting apart.

Life continued as usual, school followed by the same routine, until noon.

Gwen pulled Peter, who had his head down and couldn't make eye contact, to the top floor of an empty school building.

"Gwen, what's up?"

"Are you okay after last night?"

"Me? I'm fine," Peter's gaze drifted away from Gwen.

Gwen grabbed his shoulder firmly. "I'm worried about you! If that spider last night hurt you in any way, I apologize sincerely. It was a spider I accidentally caught in the wild. Look at its pattern; I can't rule out the possibility of it being poisonous. I strongly recommend you see a doctor or consult Dr. Connors."

Peter was usually reserved but talked a lot behind the scenes. Gwen's good intentions and her nearly explicit words fell on deaf ears, and he brushed Gwen's hand aside. "I'm fine; please don't worry about such a small thing."

"A small thing?" Gwen's eyes widened. To have one's body mutate and become one of the superheroes, was that a small thing? Peter, are you really going to keep this a secret from me?

Gwen was always a person of action. She suddenly raised her hand, and a large mass of spider silk shot out from her wrist, sticking to Peter's chest.

Peter was in disbelief, staring at Gwen, unable to speak.

"Hello! Let me introduce myself. I'm Spider-Woman. Are you the future Spider-Man?"

"I..." Finally, Peter raised his right hand, and tiny but visible hook-shaped barbs popped out of each of his fingertips, a secret of Spider-Man's wall-crawling ability.

"As expected..." Gwen tore off the webbing from Peter's chest. "Alright, I've come clean. What about you?"

"What about me?"

"What did you do last night?"

"I didn't do anything. I suddenly turned into this, and I was terrified."

"Really? Did you?" There was an urge in Gwen to ask about Mary Jane, but when the words reached her lips, she hesitated. She suddenly realized she had no right to ask that question.

Zombie Peter, plus Mary Jane - it was a double blow.

A subtle feeling of betrayal surged through Gwen's body.

"Nothing," Peter said irritably.

Gwen was itching to know more. "Okay, how about teaming up with me to take down the bad guys in New York? Make a decision."

Peter hesitated and then said, "Alright, I guess."

Gwen thought maybe this was fate's guidance. Gwen met Mary Jane, and after the initial shock, the two of them got along well. Their relationship kept getting warmer, and Gwen found herself unable to accept it, despite accidentally eating several bowls of dog food along the way.

Unfortunately, this matter was discovered by the surveillance system of the school, supervised by Agent Ang.

He couldn't help but rub his forehead in frustration. "No, Gwen, give it up. There are plenty of fish in the sea. This is destiny, no, the official pairing's ultimate damage!"

True harm was the most painful.

In history, Gwen suffered a lot. Her father died helping Peter, and she later perished herself.

Certainly, this had a profound impact on Peter.

Perhaps this was what they called a doomed fate.

Afterward, Peter, having overcome his emotional turmoil, had a couple of girlfriends but eventually married Mary Jane!

Alas! In the realm of "Fate," how could the supporting actress possibly win against the official heroine?

The wheels of fate continued to turn, and no one knew that the trajectory of the wheel had deviated ever so slightly.

Dr. Connors obtained the cross-species research formula left by Peter's father. This advancement propelled Dr. Connors' research into a new era within a week.

Unfortunately, the head of the Osborn Corporation, Ambrose Osborn, couldn't wait. His genetic disease left him with little time. Seeing Dr. Connors failing to deliver results, he decided to shut down Connors' lab.

This action forced Dr. Connors into a corner.

Dr. Connors had lost his right arm on the battlefield in his early years and had been striving to regenerate his arm. This led him to research limb regeneration in the field of lizard genetics. Now, all his efforts were on the brink of being wasted, and he couldn't bear it.

Under the group's closure order, Dr. Connors decided to take a desperate gamble. He injected himself with the lizard serum he had just developed.

His severed arm did indeed regenerate, but as a price, he turned into a three-meter-tall lizard-like creature covered in terrifying green scales.

And so, this new monster made a stunning appearance on the Golden Gate Bridge, providing the citizens of New York with a small dose of biochemical shock.

"Roar!"

The Lizard's appearance on the already congested Golden Gate Bridge caused instant gridlock.

"Ah!" The panicked citizens screamed as they fled on foot.

It was understandable. Anyone seeing a green, upright-walking lizard would be terrified, especially when it casually tossed a car weighing over a ton like a toy building block, sending it flying off the bridge.

Inside the car was an innocent civilian.

"Help—me!" A middle-aged office worker, thinking he was about to die, didn't expect that after the car plummeted thirty meters, it suddenly came to a stop, suspended in mid-air.

That's when Spider-Man swung into action.

Using the exaggerated elasticity of his spider silk, he saved the civilian just in time.

However, the Lizard's rampage continued. Cars, big and small, were being tossed off the bridge one after another, forcing Peter to repeatedly save people.

He didn't notice that everything he was doing was being observed by another Spider-Man.

Gwen shouted, "You save people; I'll stop it!"

This was the mindset of the police chief's daughter.

"Alright!" Peter nodded. Gwen bravely descended, ready to confront the Lizard.

Unfortunately, the Golden Gate Bridge wasn't the ideal terrain for Spider-Man. Gwen's sense of justice prevented her from using her spider silk to tie up cars and throw them like projectiles. When the battle began, it was more like a melee brawl.

No matter if it was punches, kicks, or webbing, none of it seemed to affect the Lizard, who had thick skin.

The Lizard went berserk, and cars of all sizes were being flung off the bridge, forcing Peter to repeatedly intervene and save lives.

He failed to notice that their actions were being observed by the New York Special Police Force, led by Police Commissioner George.

Upon seeing Spider-Man saving lives and the Lizard wreaking havoc, George made a decisive call.

"Try to avoid those two Spider-Men and open fire on the guy who looks like a green lizard!"

Over twenty members of the New York Special Police Force immediately raised their rifles and unleashed a hail of bullets toward the Lizard.

"Rat-tat-tat!"

A torrent of bullets poured down like a rain of destruction.

While dense firepower that could turn an ordinary person into a sieve proved ineffective against the Lizard. MP5 9mm bullets simply ricocheted off, and most of the 5.56mm rifle rounds were deflected by the Lizard's tough scales. Only a few bullets managed to penetrate its skin, failing to reach its muscles.

This classic example of subcutaneous damage greatly agitated the enraged Dr. Connors.

"Roar!"

Despite the onslaught of bullets, the Lizard used its unimaginable strength and speed to cover a distance of fifty meters in an instant, charging into the Special Police Force.

"Ah!" A swipe of the Lizard's claw immediately created a scene of carnage, sending heavily armored special police flying in all directions, their bodies twisted grotesquely.

Clearly, they were not alive anymore.

George bravely raised his handgun and fired several shots at the Lizard's head.

But this only further provoked its ferocity.

As the special police officers around him were swept away, the Lizard finally locked onto Commissioner George.

"No!" Gwen attempted to intervene.

She failed; her flexible spider silk was insignificant in the face of unbridled violence.

The Lizard's enormous claw seized her father's chest.

"Ssss!" George's thick bulletproof vest was torn apart as if it were a rag, and the look of deathly fear appeared on both their faces.

In that moment, a pale but strong arm appeared.

Impossible!

The Lizard's terrifying vertical pupils instantly shrank to their smallest size.

Dr. Connors knew just how powerful his strike was.

A car weighing over a ton would be sent flying.

However, this immensely forceful blow was caught by a small human arm.

Gwen widened her eyes in amazement. "Quo—"

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