But… It’s me! The real Spider-Man!

"Hey, are you okay?" Gwen asks worriedly," What happened to your arm?"

"Just ripped my shirt," I wave it off as carelessly as possible. "There's a wounded one in the van, those fools opened fire as they fell and shot each other."

I point my thumb over my shoulder in the direction of the overturned van and the eager crowd.

"I'll have someone call an ambulance," the girl picks up the bag of cash that had fallen out of the perpetrator's hands. "Will you hold on to it? This will have to go to the cops while I tie up those in the van."

There's not much in there, really. Not even enough to buy a little bit of the equipment I need for the lab. It was reckless of her to rob a small store with such aplomb, especially since Bunny's accomplices said they were paid a thousand a week. She couldn't be working at a loss, could she? The girl must be very rich. Which, by the way, would explain her high-tech toys. I, to my shame, only remember her name, because I never crossed paths with her again in my past life after that incident. I did not even know how crazy she was and that she was quite capable of taking a hostage, and possibly even murder. However, that might be due to the influence of this wild world.

"Mmm!" Dodson tries to get my attention.

On her knees, bound hand and foot, she can only twitch and make noises. Nevertheless, with mere facial expressions and eyes, she makes her point quite eloquently to me. All she had to do was point at the pouch in my hand, and then jerk her head to the side.

"What?" I said to her. "Are you suggesting we run away with the money?"

The girl nods vigorously, not caring that her luxurious hair is sweeping the dirty roof.

"And what to do with you in that case? Let you go?" I smirk. "What? I don't understand you, I can't hear you very well... ah, tell everyone later that you ran away with the money yourself, also taking me hostage?"

Bunny desperately agreed with my every suggestion. But when I pulled out my phone, she suspected something was wrong. Shit! The screen's cracked.

"Say "carrot"!" - I said, hugging the criminal by the shoulders, but all I got was an angry mooing in response. "Well, That's okay, too."

I take a few pictures. And I never created a page for myself on any of the social networks. Last Peter didn't give a shit about socializing, and I just don't have time for it, too much has happened in the last few days. I should correct this omission.

"Okay, the cops are on their way..." Gwen jumps onto the roof to the sound of sirens of approaching police cars. "What are you doing?"

"Taking a memento. Do you want to join me?" I smirk.

"Uh, no, I think I'll pass," I hear the disdain in Gwen's voice.

Oh, yeah?

"Oh, come on! You're filming for a cheap TV show, but you won't take a picture with me?" The girl couldn't find a counterargument right away.

"But just once!" She finally agrees.

We took another picture, hugging the fiercely fighting Rabbit from both sides. By this time the cops had already arrived on the scene and started actively tying up Rabbit's accomplices.

"It's time to get out of here," I remarked.

Gwen acquiesced, and we jumped off the roof of the store into the backyard, leaving the cops to deal with the bound villain themselves. I guess they could climb up to the roof of a one-story building.

"You could have been the star of today's news if you'd stayed there and testified to the cops and interviewed the reporters," Gwen says, pointing a finger behind her back.

"And I will, because I'm caught on cameras," I say, and I look at the girl intently.

"What?" she noticed my gaze. "Is there something on my face?"

Instead of answering, I toss her the spare fluid cartridges.

"I've fine-tuned the formula," I tell her, "Now the web will dissolve faster, in about an hour or an hour and a half. Also this version is harder to cut and tear. If you make a tight mesh, it will stop a bullet."

"And you just give them to me?" She asks shocked, but changes the cartridges immediately, without a second of hesitation.

Before I can think of a witty answer, a woman in a police uniform slips through the gap between the wall of the store and the building next door and shouts at us with a gun:

"Freeze! Don't move, put your hands on your head!"

"Hey, we did your job for you," Gwen is indignant, but complies with the cop's instruction.

"And I'm a kidnap victim, look at the security tapes!" I echo her, raising my hands in sync with her.

Without talking, we shoot the cobwebs at the cop. The girl's charge muzzles, and mine knocks the weapon out of the policewoman's hand a little too late.

"Brace yourself!" The girl fires the web at the high-rise building, and then, with her feet glued to the ground, stretches it out like a slingshot.

Having achieved the right amount of tension, she shoots herself like a projectile, not forgetting to grab my waist in the process.

It feels awkward, I'm usually the one who saves people this way. I might even be frightened, if I weren't now under the influence of the Lizard's serum, for a fall at that speed would probably be fatal for a normal person.

But this was nothing compared to the happiness that swept over me from the feeling of flying that had already begun to be forgotten. I hadn't experienced this incredible feeling in so long. At that moment, I finally decided that I had to find a way to become Spider-Man again, no matter what it took. It's part of me, my essence, and I just can't give it up.

"Don't be afraid," Gwen shouts at the sound of the wind.

She must have mistaken the frantic pounding of my heartbeat for a sign of fear.

"And could you not squeeze me so hard?" she added immediately. "Don't worry, I won't drop you."

So that's what this is all about. I loosen my grip somewhat.

Finally, we land in the ill-fated alleyway outside my house. This is where I was kidnapped by Cindy's people and where I was attacked upon my return home by some vagrant. More accurately, I land and Gwen hangs on a spider web, hooked on the eaves of the house.

"That was breathtaking," I say excitedly. "I guess I wasn't wrong to give them to you."

"Yes, it's unbelievable," Gwen agrees immediately, "it's as if they were made especially for me. I don't know how to thank you."

I look at her hanging upside down on the spider web, and a crazy thought pops into my head. It seems silly to me at first glance, and at second glance too, but... hey, it's a women's world where I'm a regular guy and she's Spiderwoman, why not?

"I think I have an idea," I say and walk right up to her.

Our faces are opposite each other. Gwen tears to stop my hands as I reach for the edges of her mask, because she thinks I don't know who's hiding under it. But I don't stop and pull the fabric down a little to free her lips.

Shit. Even for me, this is too awkward a moment! But I've already come this far.

I gingerly touch her lips. Damn it, I haven't felt this excited since I lost my virginity in the last world.

Gwen is stunned, but she doesn't resist; she unlatches her lips, and I use my tongue to invade her mouth, deepening the kiss.

My hearing, sharpened by the effects of the serum, is the pounding of the girl's heart. Not that mine was beating any calmer. It was a long kiss, and very exciting.

And then Gwen soars upward on the web without saying a word. Maybe she was just overexcited and too embarrassed to speak.

Smiling contentedly, I was about to go home when I heard an approaching rustle from somewhere above - a small object descended directly into my hands on a thin thread of cobweb.

My phone. When did she get it out? A fresh contact pops up on the screen: Amazing Spider-Woman.