Chapter 245: Hollywood Black and White Movie (Part 3) _1

With a loud "bang" of a gunshot, followed by the sound of shattered glass and the screaming of a shopkeeper, Peter hastily shielded Gwen and took cover around the corner of a small alley. They saw several masked gunmen advancing into a jewelry store at the far end of the street. Gwen covered her mouth, her voice barely a whisper, "My God, call the police!"

"Wait..." Gwen tugged at Peter, pointing ahead. "That clerk is injured, his artery is cut by shards of glass..."

With Peter's sharp vision, he had already seen it. The explosion had caught two clerks, one of them clutching his neck with an excessive amount of blood gushing out.

"He can't wait for an ambulance, he will die!" Frantically, Gwen thumped the wall and Peter dropped his backpack, "Wait here, Gwen."

"Wait! What are you going to do?" Gwen grabbed Peter, "They have guns and bombs. Are you crazy?"

Peter glanced back at the chaotic scene in the jewelry store. The thieves were setting off explosives at the jewelry counter, and another clerk was shot in the escape attempt.

"I have to go save people."

"But..."

Gwen did not manage to hold Peter back. She saw a complex expression on his face before he left.

She watched as Peter sprinted to the end of the alley and disappeared from her sight.

Gwen angrily pounded the wall, but the disturbance on the other side escalated, a tide of people carrying her in their flight. In the moment she turned her head, a figure flitted between skyscrapers—it was Spider-Man.

With sudden clarity, Gwen understood something. She opened her mouth wide, looking at Spider-Man as he descended. Her arm trembled, but she covered her mouth.

As the stampede moved on into a distant alleyway, Gwen stopped, hesitated, then went against the flow of the crowd, returning in the direction they came.

Stopping by a car, she saw Spider-Man knock out a thief with a punch. He rolled on the ground to dodge bullets. Gwen watched, wide-eyed, as a bullet grazed Spider-Man. For a moment, her heart clenched.

With shaking arms, Gwen covered her mouth to hold back a scream. Spider-Man proficiently took care of two thieves, but one of them returned to their car, retrieved a semi-automatic weapon even more lethal, and began to fire at Spider-Man.

Spider-Man reacted quickly and leapt behind the counter, using it as a shield. Shooting a web at the gunman's face, blinding him, Spider-Man then darted out, landing a punch that felled the shooter.

After all four thieves were incapacitated, Spider-Man approached the severely injured clerk, using his web to bind the wound.

The sirens of police cars and ambulances echoed in the distance as Peter came to stand in the middle of the road and saw Gwen watching from behind a car.

Gwen's eyes were red-rimmed, staring intensely at Spider-Man, trying to discern something about him.

Peter stood in the center of the road, bathed in harsh sunbeams. He clenched his fists tightly, seemingly making a decision that required great courage. Then, he dashed forward, scooped up Gwen, and catapulted into the air on a line of web.

Amidst the dazzling sunlight, Peter and Gwen swung through the high-rise buildings of Hollywood, like a journey through the cosmos, reaching the set of a fantastic blockbuster. Gwen's hair billowed in the wind, people and vehicles below appearing tiny.

Spider-Man brought her to the roof of the tallest building. Upon landing, Gwen instinctively reached out to touch Spider-Man's mask. Peter copied the gesture, covering her hand with his while bringing his other hand up to tear off his mask.

Time froze, the sun highlighting his hair, making it shimmer like golden threads. The dust particles around them danced, creating a spectacular display, mirroring the grand adventures happening around the city.

Amidst the silent symphony, Peter, still clad in the Spider-Man suit, tightly embraced Gwen.

Then, for the first time, he kissed Gwen. Within the brilliant daylight and pure white background, their silhouettes merged with the light.

Light piercing through and shining on the jewel counter in the jewelry store, shattered in the robbery, left a dazzling gemstone on the ground, glittering under the sunlight.

As light started to dim, the fantastic glow of the gem turned into a mysterious and subtle glimmer. A whip flew in, its delicate tip curling around the gem, Catwoman jumped onto the beam, hanging upside down, watching Batman enter the jewelry store.

She waved at Batman with a smile, "Bye~"

Then she righted herself, performed a stunning gymnastics move, and started running along the beam, finally jumping out of a back door, Batman hot on her heels.

Under the vast moon, the city turned into a silhouette, two small figures hopping between tall buildings.

Batman's cape flapped behind him, the resistance from the wind felt like a black hand holding him back.

Underneath the mask, his eyes were firmly on the small figure. Batman couldn't help but wonder whether he was chasing a criminal or...love?

But he dove deeper, his eyes focused solely on her figure, reaching behind when he felt an obstruction, and pulled off his cape, holding it in his hand.

Jumping off the high-rise, Batman grabbed Catwoman. Using a grappling hook to catch onto the rooftop of another building, they landed on the roof, Batman's cape still fluttering in the wind.

After a mysterious deep kiss, Catwoman embraces him, pressing her ear to his chest and says: "Your heart is beating so fast."

"So is yours."

The wildness returns to Catwoman's eyes, teasing and infused with madness. She strokes Batman's face and says, "Do you think I could immerse myself in such a dream?"

"Wearing a beautiful long dress, listening to your compliments, dancing and chatting with you, Batman, don't be foolish, that's not us..."

The crazed gleam in her eyes made Batman even more infatuated. Catwoman's voice was like the temptation of the devil. She said, "Such a life is good, such a dream is really beautiful, but that's not us..."

"...You're insane," Batman said. His words resonated in his chest, spreading along Catwoman's fingertips. Catwoman moved closer to him and said, "If you were anyone else, I wouldn't mind living such a dream. In it, I am a poor girl from the slums, and you are a wealthy man..."

"You gave me everything, money, gemstones, love. You drowned me in the most extravagant jewels in the world. Then, holding my hand, we danced, kissed and walked into the church, and then into the grave..."

With her finger against Batman's chest, Catwoman said, "But that's too ordinary."

Looking into Batman's eyes, Catwoman said, " Yes, I'm insane. I gave up such a life to become a thief."

"Batman, Batman... But if I weren't crazy..."

"...How lonely would you be?"

Catwoman clearly felt Batman's body stiffen momentarily. His gaze at her was filled with complex emotions, as if certain feelings had suddenly surfaced.

"If you're a weirdo who likes to dress up as a bat, then I'm a lunatic who wants to turn herself into a cat. We're a perfect match."

Releasing her arms from around Batman, Catwoman stepped back a few steps and said, "Otherwise, who do you think we are?"

"If we were in a movie, at this point, I should tell you that no matter who you are, I love you. Then I would encourage you, give you courage..."

"And then you would take off your mask, revealing your true identity to me, saying you love me and then kissing me."

"But we're not in a movie..."

With a look that was neither sad nor disappointed, but rather teasingly carefree, Catwoman said, "So I have to tell you, whether you are a Batman or not and how many souls you have doesn't matter to me, I don't care."

"...Why?"

"Because we're both mad, Batman... So we're not lonely."

Batman stared at her fascinatedly. The light in Catwoman's eyes was intoxicating, almost irrational, overriding his brain's warnings and ignoring his intuition. In the chorus of the two of them, his deep voice echoed, "You really are crazy..."

"... But so am I."

His words were answered with a kiss, a kiss from a cat.

In this pitch-black night, along with a deep and soothing nocturne, two lunatics and monsters embraced each other, exchanging their absurd and twisted affections.

It was like a black-and-white overlapping old movie, with two cosmos of extreme white light and extreme dark night, embracing each other with their lovers.

Their destiny, absurd to each other like a film plot, took turns performing in the city that had witnessed countless wonderful stories.

With a "click", the projector started up. Shiller took out the old-fashioned tape from it. After the intertwined black and white shadows disappeared, the friends from the two spacetimes were all drowsy on the couch, and he was the only one still awake.

The film from the last era was not impressive. The plot was cliched, the picture simple, techniques not mysterious enough, scenes not grand enough, halfway through, it made people feel sleepy.

Yet in the morning light and sunset, Shiller stood in front of the projector, carefully putting these two reels of video tapes back into different boxes.

Once the projector's humming sound ceased, the room fell into complete silence, and Shiller's tiredness surged up.

He walked to the window. The alloy window frame and the wooden window bars overlap in the cloudy light.

Seen from the outside, only such a window light was on. The silhouette in the light was alone and seemed a bit lonely.

However, the flickering light and shadow behind him were surprisingly lively, like a movie woven by the destinies of countless galaxies.

With a "click", the light goes out in the room. After the two cosmos bid each other goodnight, everything falls silent, waiting for the next opening.