Chapter 186: Gwen's Spider-Man and the Alternative Three-Way
"Finally dealt with that Vulture who somehow ended up in the wrong universe."
Spider-Gwen let out a breath and felt her shoulders drop. It was a specific kind of relief — the kind that comes from finishing something cleanly, without backup, for the first time.
Ever since the Alchemax particle collider incident had thrown her into Miles's universe, she'd been navigating the chaos of the multiverse one crisis at a time. But this one she'd handled alone. That meant something.
She opened her dimensional watch and began pulling up the interface to file her mission report with the Spider-Society.
Her first solo assignment. She wanted to get the write-up right.
Since that first accidental crossing, the multiverse had gone from an abstract concept to the organizing fact of her life. She'd spent weeks wearing down Miguel's resistance before he finally let her in — and handed her the watch. Designed by Spider-Man 2099 himself, it could punch through to any Spider-Man universe in the multiverse. More importantly, it kept her anchored. No more cosmic rejection. No more slow degradation from existing somewhere she wasn't supposed to be.
She hadn't realized how much that low-level dread had been sitting on her chest until it was gone.
The watch had given her a purpose. Track down villains who'd slipped between universes. Keep the timelines clean. Protect versions of people who didn't even know they needed protecting.
She was good at it.
Still — one small regret from this mission. She hadn't seen this universe's Spider-Man. She'd been curious. In her own world, Peter hadn't been bitten by a spider; instead his intelligence had taken him somewhere darker, and in the end she'd been the one who—
She cut the thought off.
Time to go.
She knew the rules. Don't linger in a universe that isn't yours. Don't pull the threads. Don't give Miguel an excuse to take the watch back.
She raised the device.
"You must be Gwen. Don't leave yet — stay and talk for a minute."
She spun around, every nerve firing at once.
Who—
Her Spider-Sense had given her nothing. Not a flicker. In the second it took her to register that, the stranger's face came into focus — and her read of the situation sharpened from threat to unknown.
"Who are you?" she asked, keeping her voice level. "How do you know my name?"
The man — young, unhurried, looking faintly exasperated — seemed more tired than dangerous.
"Don't worry," he said. "You know Miles, right? Miles helped send everyone back after the collider incident, then got thrown into my universe. He mentioned you."
Miles.
Some of the tension bled out of her posture, but not all of it. "Did he mention anyone else? And how do I know you didn't do something to him?"
"He mentioned a few others. One who looks like a pig. Penny Parker." He paused. "As for whether Miles is okay — I can't prove a negative. But I can take you to meet two other Spider-Men."
Gwen's attention locked onto that immediately. "Two?"
Two Spider-Men. In this universe. Either this universe had its own, or—
"One is from here," he said, reading the question on her face. "The other one I brought over myself."
He opened a portal.
Gold light, clean edges. No watch. No device she could see.
How.
She stood there, weighing it. Could be a trap. Probably wasn't — his whole energy was too annoyed to be theatrical, and a trap this elaborate to catch her specifically made no sense.
And she had questions. About Miles. About how he was doing it. About whether any version of Peter out there looked like—
She stepped through.
She didn't even get a chance to take in the room before the voices hit her.
"Whoa."
"A girl Spider-Man?!" Harry drove an elbow into Tobey-Peter's ribs.
Tobey-Peter had already stopped functioning. Gwen had her mask off, and he was staring in a way that was going to become a problem in approximately four seconds.
Garfield-Peter's expression was something else entirely.
He looked at her and went completely still.
Her face. The hair. The way she held herself.
If he hadn't already been told — if Ethan hadn't already warned him about the multiverse, about other versions of people — he might have thought he was losing his mind. He might have thought she'd somehow—
Gwen.
He knew she wasn't. She couldn't be. But his chest didn't get the memo immediately, and for a moment he just stood there and breathed through it.
Gwen, meanwhile, was scanning the room.
Her gaze found the taller Spider-Man first. Garfield-Peter. She studied him briefly, and something in her expression settled into gentle disappointment.
Not him, she thought quietly. Not the same.
Then her eyes moved.
And stopped.
Glasses. Shy posture. A face she'd know anywhere, even here, even in another universe entirely.
Oh.
Tobey-Peter became very aware that he was being stared at, and turned approximately the color of a tomato.
Harry noticed. He said nothing, visibly delighted.
Gwen pulled herself together. She could see what Harry was thinking, and she needed to get ahead of it.
"I really did have a friend who looked exactly like you," she said, directing it at Tobey-Peter. "But he wasn't Spider-Man. He was..." She paused. "He turned into the Lizard. And he died. Because of me."
The room went quiet.
The grief in her voice wasn't performed. It was just there — sitting in the sentence like it lived there permanently.
If the spider had bitten him instead of me, maybe it would have gone differently. Maybe he'd still be here.
She didn't say that part out loud.
Tobey-Peter and Garfield-Peter exchanged a glance, the two of them equally at a loss. Neither of them was equipped for this. You couldn't just apologize for someone's alternate-universe dead friend. There was no right move.
They stood there and let her have the moment.
Ethan broke the silence.
"Alright, the three of you — introduce yourselves. And Gwen, while you're at it, tell them about the Spider-Society."
Every head in the room swiveled toward him.
"The — what?" the two Peters said at the same time.
"There are other Spider-Men besides us three?"
"How many Spider-Men are there??"
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