Chapter 13

Gwen POV

Her eyes fluttering open and immediately squinting against a bright light shining down on her, Gwen woke after what felt like a long sleep. She was lying down on her back on a horizontal surface, but when she groggily tried to sit up, something thick and made of metal tugged back on her wrists and ankles, forcing her to stay down.

Confused, Gwen looked down and tried to lift her arms back up a few more times, once again to no avail, but she could now see that she was wearing some kind of blue hospital gown which had been folded closed in the front. Gwen quickly tried to recall why she would be in a hospital, though her thoughts and memories felt sluggish and disorganized, but suddenly she noticed little tingles all over her body that were moving around up and down her legs and arms in little waves that felt almost ticklish.

Looking down to see what the sources of these sensations were, Gwen almost let out a scream, instead managing to limit it to a soft yelp of fear. Crawling all over her body were at least half a dozen tiny robots with metal dome cores painted a bright red and eight pointed, spindly legs coming out beneath them to carry them along, four on each side. They also each had four eyes on one side to determine which side was the front, each eye shining a dim red to let them see as they worked quickly and efficiently on… whatever they were doing.

Instinctively, Gwen tried to push them all off of her, but her hands were still restrained tightly to her sides, so all she could do was to try her best to scoot upwards to try to get them off, but the robots didn't seem fazed in the slightest and simply clung onto her hospital gown effortlessly and continued their work.

Apparently hearing Gwen's quiet cry of terror, a male voice coming from somewhere above Gwen said, "They won't harm you."

Unable to see who had spoken due to the blinding light above her eyes, Gwen tried to squint to see whoever had spoken, but quickly found it impossible. Fortunately, it turned out that she didn't have to, as a moment later, a form jumped down from above her and landed on the floor next to where she lay in a crouch, then stood up and tapped something on their wrist with their opposite hand, and suddenly the single bright light above Gwen shut off as other, less-intense artificial ceiling lights turned on to fill the room.

The figure then turned to push the lamp that had been blinding Gwen away from her face, sending it swinging to the side and out of her field of view, then said, "There. That should be calibrated correctly now. And I'll have to have a word with Murdock about who he allows to tamper with my equipment in the future."

The figure then began to walk away without another word to Gwen,seeming distracted, but Gwen noticed his unusual outfit and said, "Wait. I… remember you."

Turning to stare back at Gwen with undisguised indifference showing through dark gray lenses that obscured his eyes, the man asked, "Do you? How interesting."

Gwen was trying to remember exactly where she had seen this person before, sure that she should remember his black and red mask and skintight costume through which she could see his incredible build of a slim physique yet with numerous well-defined muscles all across his body, when suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her arm that made her exclaim in surprise.

Looking down, she saw that it had come from one of the eight-legged miniature robots stabbing a tiny silver needle into her arm, though the needle retracted back into the underside of the robot's dome body after only a couple seconds, taking the momentary stab of pain with it. Then, once it had finished whatever it was doing, the robot turned towards the masked man next to Gwen and jumped onto his chest, then crawled up his torso and back down one of his arms to rest itself inside his palm.

The man held the little robot up and reached inside it with his free hand to withdraw a small vial of some red liquid - which Gwen realized with shock was her blood that had been extracted - and said to himself, "Ah. Perfect." Then, seeing the distressed look on Gwen's face, the man told her apologetically, "Yes, I know that I said they wouldn't hurt you, but I needed to do something. Ultra-compressed hydraulics were the only solution, my needles were having trouble piercing your skin without it."

Looking at the robot in the man's hand, then at the man's mask that Gwen realized looked so similar to her own, then at the large symbol across the man's chest that looked like some enormous spider, Gwen suddenly remembered, "You! You're that… Spider-Man! We had a fight, and…"

But at that, Gwen broke off as she recalled with shame what had happened during their "fight", how she had been beaten within an inch of her life with hardly any chance of retaliation. Now, she reasoned that she must have been taken prisoner, meaning whatever she was laying on was not so much a bed as an examination table for her enemy's evil experiments.

Spider-Man, however, seemed satisfied with her recollection and held up the vial of Gwen's blood to examine it closely as he flicked the vial and responded, "Yes, I'm glad you remember, Ms. Stacy. Mr. Murdock presented me with his concerns that I may have caused you lasting brain damage, but he will be pleased to hear that they were unwarranted. Of course, I assured him that I had taken special care to leave you mostly intact, but no doubt the evidence will relieve any doubts he may have had. Not that there is any logical reason he should've doubted me in the first place."

And with that, Spider-Man began to walk away, pressing a button on the silver vambrace on the back of his wrist as he went, and all of the little mechanical creepy-crawlies covering Gwen instantly jumped off of her, some of them simply crawling off the side of the table while others shot miniscule copies of webs like the ones Gwen used from their tiny legs and swung away across the room.

Meanwhile, the one in Spider-Man's palm crawled up onto his shoulder and sat there like some sort of strange approximation of a pet parrot, and though its glowing red eyes didn't visibly move, Gwen couldn't ignore the feeling that it was watching her.

Trying to relieve some of her stress through humor, Gwen asked, "So, you bad guys are really going for the full 'mad scientist' thing these days, huh? I thought that was just in movies. If you couldn't tell, though, this is my first time being a prisoner. Do I get a pin or something?"

Ignoring everything she said expertly, Spider-Man walked past the foot of Gwen's bed and stood in front of a metal worktable, seemingly putting Gwen out of his mind completely as he began to silently work on something in his hands that Gwen couldn't see, occasionally grabbing tools from around the room to assist him, sometimes firing a quick web line from his wrists to pull something into his hand from across the room.

Watching him silently for a few minutes, Gwen managed to determine that in addition to his suit being similar to her own (which she now saw hanging on a mannequin next to Spider-Man's worktable, repaired and surrounded by large magnifying glasses), Spider-Man's webs also seemed to be the same as her own and he even did the same hand gesture in order to fire them. Wondering about the significance of these similarities, Gwen pointed out, "You're like me."

"Your acumen is astounding," Spider-Man responded sarcastically without looking back at her. "Alas, your assumption is vastly flawed. We are not nearly as alike as you would undoubtedly like to believe."

Unconvinced, Gwen argued, "I don't know about that. We both have spider powers, we both shoot webs from our wrists. Even our costumes are kinda similar!"

There was a short silence, then Spider-Man said, "These supposed likenesses were intentional, and of my own design. You gained your powers and began using them publicly before I did. I based my equipment, style, and combative prowess on the fashions that you originally devised, then perfected each of them through my personal alteration process."

"Perfected, huh?" Gwen asked, starting to get a bit of an arrogant vibe from this guy. "Like there was something wrong with the way I did things?"

Reinforcing Gwen's impression of this guy's egotistic behavior, Spider-Man simply nodded and said, "Of course there is. Much of what you've done is… admittedly impressive, but only for your youth and ignorance. I not only replicated your general approach to possessing these abilities, but I improved upon every aspect of it, making myself into the ultimate version of what a Spider-Man can be. The superior Spider."

Gwen stared at the man's back for a moment, then said, "Alright, come on. How many times have you rehearsed that one in the shower? Be honest."

Finally looking back at Gwen for the first time in this conversation to give her an annoyed glare, Spider-Man ignored her question as he added, "I've also done away with your insufferable sense of humor. Unlike you, I will not be found jesting like a loon in the midst of battle, which is yet another justification for why I am the greater between the two of us."

"If you're so great, why haven't I seen you before?" Gwen asked, curious as to how there could've been another Spider-person that she didn't know about for however long this guy had been "perfecting" his powers. "You say you wanted to be better than me, but I haven't seen or heard of you for however long you've been around. What's wrong? Figured you'd have a little actual competition if you tried to take me on in the 'hero' part of the job? Or did you think you'd just be too sensitive to handle Jameson on your back for everything?"

"Neither," Spider-Man responded easily, returning to his work. "I chose temporary anonymity over inane attempts at heroics. Here, I am appreciated. Here, I have authority. Here, I am supplied with all the resources I can ask for and am free to fulfill my one true obligation to this world, one that a rare visionary man such as Murdock alone can share! To create the future!"

"Murdock being a 'visionary' metaphorically, right?" Gwen asked.

At that, Spider-Man slumped forward over his table and groaned to himself, giving Gwen a great deal of amusement. Then, Gwen asked, "Are you saying that you don't do the 'hero' thing at all? But… There're so many people that need help! And with powers like ours, we have the power to give them that help!"

"What then?" Spider-Man asked, finally turning around fully in his chair to face her with a glare. "Should I do as you do? Dress up each night and pretend to be a hero? Saving one life or a hundred each night, but all of it ultimately fruitless?"

Determined to convince him, Gwen began to say, "Well, yeah! Having these powers isn't a blessing for us, it allows us to protect other people when they can't protect themselves. And even if we can't save everyone, we at least need to-"

"'NEED'?!" Spider-Man demanded with a thunderous roar, leaping to his feet. He then marched over to Gwen and leaned down over her face to yell, "I don't 'need' to do anything for anyone! You want to convince me that because I have power, I 'need' to also take some kind of responsibility for everyone else?! Of all your witticisms, Spider-Woman, that is your funniest one yet, because no powerful figure in my life ever seemed to take responsibility for me! My father beat me! My mother drove away the first woman I ever thought I could love! I was bullied relentlessly all throughout my education! Every so-called 'brilliant' scientist I ever tried to work with shunned me, dismissed me, stole from me, mocked me, ruined me! Osborn, Stark, Smythe, Twaki, Pym, Trask, all of them! Every last one of them! And they all had power, but they used that power to trample me under their boots! And now, I'm one of the most powerful people on the planet, working alongside the first person to ever truly appreciate my genius! And while I have a little power of my own for the first time in my miserable existence, power I earned for myself, I have no intention of wasting it, as you have, on responsibility."

Once Spider-Man had finished saying all this, Gwen had her head leaned as far away from him as she could get it, but her ears were still ringing from all the yelling right next to her ear.

Luckily, now that she had finally been silenced and Spider-Man had finished getting out some of his anger, he gave her one last distasteful look and held up a hand. Immediately, the little spider-bot on his shoulder jumped down to land in his palm once again, then Spider-Man lowered it down onto Gwen's chest and said, "I custom-made your restraints to contain even your superhuman strength, but from now on, any and all attempts at escape will be punished."

Then, without another word, he walked back over to his worktable. However, him being back there did not make Gwen feel any more safe while she was stuck here on this table. She once again tugged as hard as she could against her restraints, but whatever they were made of, they held her down well. Also, this time, when she pulled against the restraints, the spider-bot on her chest suddenly buzzed and Gwen felt a painful surge of electricity surge through her body, explaining what Spider-Man had meant about punishing her attempts to escape.

Knowing that she would need to figure out some other plan if she wanted to get out of here, Gwen laid her head back and tried to think. She didn't even know where she was being held right now, nor did she currently have any way of finding out, but she suddenly felt really foolish for leaving Miles behind when she went after the Kingpin, silently thinking to herself about what she would give right now not to be alone in this.

Miles POV

After the night when Miles had made two of his favorite people mad at him and watched them both disappear out his window, leaving him behind while they went to go fight his boss, Gwen wasn't in school the next day, which Miles couldn't help but feel like was kind of his fault for some reason or another.

Last night, his exceptionally well-trained senses had caused him to wake up to the sound of pages turning. Then, rolling over in his bed silently, he had been surprised and somewhat embarrassed to find Spider-Woman (who he now knew to secretly be his best friend, Gwen Stacy) standing by his desk and facing away from him as she flipped freely through the pages of his personal sketchbook.

A sketchbook he had told her previously was very private to him, seeing as it contained depictions of some of his innermost thoughts and feelings, including a complete recording of how his interest and emotional attachment had evolved into two conflicting teenage crushes on both Gwen Stacy and Spider-Woman before he even knew that they were the same person, never expecting either of them to look through his personal belongings and find the evidence of his feelings, and then, like a nightmare, they were both doing it at the same time.

Then again, it had already been too late to stop her from seeing it, and to add to the awkwardness of the situation, Spider-Woman had informed Miles (in his own alter-ego as the Prowler) that she already had a boyfriend.

Sadly, that information had not been enough to make Miles stop thinking of her in the way he did, sometimes daydreaming foolishly of a scenario where Spider-Woman's boyfriend pushed her away, though of course he'd have to be crazy to do so, and Prowler would be the one that she turned to for comfort. And the one who rained down judgment on her new ex-boyfriend, but that was besides the point.

Soon enough, he had forced himself to face the fact that her boyfriend was certainly never likely to let her go or hurt her in any way, not if he truly understood the blessing he had, and the best thing Miles could do for Spider-Woman would be to put her (at least mostly) out of his mind and be happy for her own happiness. So he had tried to move on, going so far as to begin to actively pursue his other crush on Gwen Stacy, though he imagined that his double life would make that relationship significantly more difficult than one with Spider-Woman.

He had… more-or-less asked Gwen to the Homecoming dance and had found her presence incredibly comfortable and peaceful on that night. Of course, he had already known before then of the lengths he was willing to go to in order to protect his best friend, but after that night, he wasn't quite sure what he wouldn't be willing to do whatsoever for Gwen Stacy.

But then… Everything had gone wrong the very next night, when Spider-Woman decided to take off her mask in front of him for the first time. With that small act, she had simultaneously solved one big problem for him and given him two more problems of equal to even greater size.

On the one hand, she had helped him accomplish his mission to discover Spider-Woman's identity. On the other, due to who she was, he couldn't possibly bring himself to turn over that information to the man who had hired him to figure it out, which put his well-enjoyed and good-paying job in a rut that he didn't know how to get out of.

And the other problem was even worse, mostly because of how much more personal it was. If Gwen was Spider-Woman… then she had Spider-Woman's boyfriend, meaning both of Miles' crushes were beyond his reach. He'd foolishly allowed himself to get his hopes up at Homecoming that Gwen was still available. He'd never seen her talking to anyone other than him, and the only other friend she'd ever mentioned was gone. How had Miles been so foolish to think that just because she didn't have any other "friends", that meant she didn't have anyone who was… more? The realization had felt like it was ripping his heart out of his chest.

But then, with him being the Prowler, maybe it was also for the best. He'd told himself before that both Spider-Woman and Gwen were too good for him. Maybe he didn't have much of a heart to break anyway.

Yet for all the pain that Gwen had unintentionally brought Miles, he felt like he had done far worse to her. Last night, she had discovered, as he knew she eventually would, that he was the Prowler, and she had been enraged. At first, he had thought that she was just mad at him for lying to her, even just two days longer than when she had revealed her own identity, but then she'd explained further.

As it turned out, Gwen had been looking for a very specific kind of friend in Miles Morales. She had wanted someone… normal. Someone who made her feel less unusual, who had been able to accept her as the normal person that they thought she was.

I should've realized it before, Miles thought to himself shamefully. Gwen had never been accepted as Spider-Woman. She'd been chased, threatened, and generally persecuted by her dad for over a year, hated by the city she protected, and blamed endlessly for the murder of the only person who had ever accepted her as Gwen Stacy. Both Miles and Prowler had tried to be there for Gwen and Spider-Woman, remaining convinced to this day of the perfection they hid inside them, but she didn't want Miles to be a part of her other world, and she'd been angry at him for doing it anyway.

And worse still, in the heat of the moment of last night, Gwen had accidentally… kissed him. Miles still could hardly believe that it had happened, but after pinching himself repeatedly after she had gone, he'd been forced to conclude that it had not been a dream. It had been Miles' first kiss, and such an amazing experience to be able to share it with both of his crushes at once, but now Miles felt a devastating rush of guilt.

Gwen had rushed off immediately after kissing him, and Miles thought he knew why. Whether she had held a secret (and probably involuntary) attraction towards Miles, Prowler, or both, he had pressured her into cheating on her mysterious boyfriend. Of course, Miles knew the truth, that he was the only one deserving any of the blame, but he also knew Gwen well enough to know that she would be feeling culpable herself, and while some part of him had secretly enjoyed the unexpected show of desire, making Gwen Stacy feel the remorse that rightly belonged to Miles was unforgivable.

No doubt that very regret was what had kept Gwen from returning to her mandatory school day, and all thanks to Miles' carelessness. So as he walked out of his Physics class at the end of the day, alone for the first time since this school year had started, he knew that he deserved it.

One of the last things Gwen had told him before leaving was that she didn't want to see him be the Prowler ever again, and Miles could see why. The Prowler only brought pain to those around him, especially good people that deserved better. He couldn't do "partners", and Miles Morales must've been crazy to think that he could do "friends".

After school ended, Miles walked around the back of the school and looked around cautiously before turning and running straight up the wall of the building, getting to the roof in seconds. Once he was atop the school, Miles walked over and slumped down next to a railing, leaning his back against it and setting his backpack to the side, then tucked his legs in towards his chest and bowed his head into his crossed arms on top of them.

He needed to get away from the crowds for a while, get some peace and quiet, and his uncle had told him to refrain from using his shoes as much as possible outside of his costume, but where else could he go?

His normal thinking spot on the school grounds? He and Gwen had talked there yesterday.

His dorm room? Gwen had kissed him there, then left him behind in his shame.

The school commons? He had helped Gwen with her "art project" there, which he only now realized had not been a new motorcycling jacket for her dad, as she'd claimed, but for Spider-Woman's new suit that he must've looked at hundreds of times in the last couple weeks without putting the pieces together.

It was like every part of this place was now tainted with memories of him and Gwen, which may have been pleasant to think about before last night, but now they were only a source of deep emotional pain.

Suddenly, Miles' phone buzzed in his pocket, and Miles sighed before he pulled it out to answer it. He knew it wouldn't be Gwen, no matter how much he wanted it to be, so why should he even bother right now? Maybe it was Mr. Nelson calling with his next mission, which could be a pretty big one seeing as he hadn't been given one last night. If so, Miles had every intention of making whatever excuse he had to in order to avoid even attempting the job. Even if he had been in the mood for work right now, he knew that his "partner" currently wanted nothing to do with him.

Fortunately, when Miles pulled out his phone and looked at the caller ID, he could see that he was actually being contacted not by the expected "Avocado", but rather by "Uncle A". Rubbing his temple tiredly as he picked up the call, Miles held the phone to his ear and greeted, "Hey, Uncle Aaron."

"Hey, little man," his uncle's voice responded pleasantly. "You good? You sound a little down."

Sitting up straighter against the railing, Miles responded, "No, no, I'm good. What's up?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to head out with me tonight," Aaron said. "It's been a while since we last did a job together, just the two of us. So what do you say? Like old times?"

His uncle certainly sounded enthusiastic about the prospect, but Miles wasn't quite sure that he shared the feeling. While it was true that he hadn't done a mission with just his uncle since before Miles had even become the Prowler, he now thought that it would feel a bit more… weird.

It would be too alike yet too different to what Miles had grown used to, and grown to enjoy, his missions with Spider-Woman, which he was currently worried may be over for good. They had become a powerful team, learning each other's strengths and weaknesses in combat and compensating for one another. Now, at the thought of going back into the field without the expectation of having Gwen to watch his back, knowing that he wouldn't have her voice to fill the silence with her terrible jokes and their playful repartee, he wasn't sure if he could do it.

He had worked with his uncle first, and they had always been successful, but… Uncle Aaron didn't know how to include fun in the job, and that had been fine for a darker, angrier version of Miles, but now he didn't know how to go back to his work feeling like actual work and no play. Then again, if he wasn't going to be working with Spider-Woman again anyway…

Suddenly, Miles had a brilliant idea and quickly told his uncle, "No, sorry, Uncle Aaron, I can't tonight. Actually, probably can't for a while."

There was a short silence, and then Uncle Aaron's voice spoke again, now sounding almost incensed. "This is about that girl, Spider-Woman, isn't it? I told you not to let her mess with your mind, Miles."

"She's not messing with my-," Miles argued.

As though he hadn't heard him, Aaron cut him off, "You're letting that girl in your head, man, and worse, in your heart. You can't do that. She's your mission, not your friend."

"I trust her," Miles insisted.

"Then you're acting stupid," Aaron told him. "What does she even matter to you? What does she contribute that I apparently can't? I thought you couldn't stand her!"

At that reminder, Miles looked down and played his memories with Spider-Woman over in his mind. "She never stops talking, she's reckless, unprofessional, and impulsive, and she's nearly gotten me killed several times," Miles recalled, glaring at the floor. He then smiled fondly to himself and added, "She's the best."

Over the phone, Aaron groaned and said, "Miles, you're letting her manipulate you! This is exactly what I trained you against! If you want to do this job, you gotta learn how to let go of people like her!"

Finally losing his cool, Miles exclaimed, "Then maybe I don't want to do this anymore!"

Once again, there was a silence following that statement, though this one was longer and deeper than the last. Finally, Uncle Aaron repeated softly, "You… don't want to do this anymore?"

"Let me make myself clear," Miles told him angrily, firmly standing by what he'd said. "You trained me to be like you, to let out my anger at the world by putting on a mask and knocking aside everything in my path just because I could. I was hurting, and you showed me a way to get that hurt out. But your way isn't the only way that I can relieve that pain.

"Being Prowler made me strong enough to overcome that pain, but it also alienated me from everyone, including myself. I want to be able to trust people. I want to express myself, to show off what I can do in the daylight. I want to have friends, I want to tell jokes, I want to laugh, I want to smile while I still have a reason to. I'm moving on. I'll always be grateful to you for what you did for me, Uncle Aaron, but now I'm done. You can be the Prowler again. The only one. Consider me retired."

With that, Miles hung up the phone and let out a deep breath. He didn't know how his uncle would take this, if he would be impressed by Miles growing up and making his own choices or if he would consider it practically a betrayal, but right now, Miles didn't really care. He knew that he'd eventually have to face his uncle's reaction to Miles abandoning his preferred path, but at the moment, Miles felt like an enormous weight had just been lifted off his shoulders.

For so long now, he'd followed in his uncle's footsteps, wanting nothing more than to be like him, but now Miles felt truly free from his pain for the first time in nearly a year. Instead of bottling it up to throw back at his enemies, Miles was finally shrugging off the chains of pain and rage that had held him back for so long, and he suddenly felt like he could do anything he wanted.

And with one thing that he wanted to do rising above all others, Miles felt a grin rise to his face as he looked towards the southern edge of the building, then quickly stood up, and after putting his backpack back on and pulling the straps tight around his shoulders, he sprinted towards the ledge and jumped off, then fell a couple stories until he saw an open dorm room window and launched himself sideways into it, landing in Spider-Woman's three-point crouching pose as he had developed the habit of doing.

Looking around, he was relieved to discover that whichever girl's dorm this was wasn't currently present, as he'd hoped would be the case this early in the afternoon. Otherwise, he might've had a difficult time trying to explain his sudden appearance through the window on a building with no exterior fire escape.

Miles exited the dorm room easily, but he instantly grabbed the attention of the numerous people currently walking through the halls, all of whom were surely currently taking note of a boy, Miles Morales, no less, exiting a girl's room without any explanation.

Ignoring the muffled guffaws and quiet giggles that followed his surprise appearance, Miles walked over to the nearest girl he saw and asked her, "Do you know where Gwen Stacy's room is?"

Once again, Miles had to tune out the way that the girl and her friends shared a look of hilarity and held their hands over their mouths to hide wide smiles filled with mirth, but then the girl he had been addressing turned to him and temporarily managed to stifle her laughter so that she could ask, "And, uh, what's it worth to you?"

His eyes narrowing slightly at the girl's unhelpful behavior, Miles looked away from her and turned hopefully instead to her friends. Most of them just giggled at him, but one smiled at him and pointed down the hall to say, "She's one floor up, then head west, and the fourth door on the right."

Immediately, her other friends turned to her looking mutinous, angry at her for ruining their moment of fun, but Miles nodded to her gratefully all the same and began to walk off in the indicated direction, heading up the stairs one floor then down the hall until he found the door that was supposedly Gwen's. Excitement built in Miles as he raised one fist and rapped on the door with his knuckles.

He was now free to do whatever he wanted, free from his mission and his uncle's expectations, and he intended to use that freedom to the fullest. He was going to do what Gwen wanted him to do, be who she wanted him to be. He didn't have to be the Prowler anymore. He could be her normal, supportive friend, and hopefully eventually make amends for making her kiss him. He could earn back her trust, earn back her friendship. He could be normal, even keep himself from talking about anything Spider-Woman-related, if that was what she wanted. As long as Miles had his friend back, he couldn't imagine anything that he couldn't do.

However, after a moment with no answer from the other side of the door, Miles decided that he had to give her a better reason to open the door and called out, "Gwen? Are you in there? It's Miles!"

Immediately after saying it, Miles had to refrain from slapping his hand to his face in annoyance for his foolishness. Like telling her that it was him would make her want to open the door. She was probably hiding in there simply to avoid him.

Pleading, Miles said, "Gwen, please open the door. I know I have a lot to apologize for, but I… I need to tell you something."

Still no answer.

"Come on, Gwen, you said we would talk!" Miles begged one last time.

Once again, he was simply ignored. However, Miles would not allow himself to be dismissed that easily. Sighing to himself, Miles pulled off his backpack and rifled through its contents for a second before pulling out a small card, one of his lighter and more easily-disguised tools from being the Prowler. Inserting it into the card-reader on the room's door lock, the device flashed red repeatedly for a second, then turned to a bright green as he heard the door unlock.

Slipping inside the room and closing the door behind him, Miles began to explain, "Gwen, look, I know you're-" But he suddenly broke off upon finding the room empty of anyone except himself. For a moment, he wondered if this was really Gwen's room, but with a quick glance at the desk, he instantly recognized both of her phones lying on the surface, both her personal cell phone and the flip phone that Prowler had given her.

Looking around, he could see further evidence that Gwen must still be around here somewhere, such as her suitcase and laptop still lying around, but not having seen her anywhere in the school today, he didn't know where she could be currently if not in here. Perhaps she had switched her last class to something else? But he would think that he'd still have seen her around. Then maybe she'd asked her dad to take her out of school for the day or something.

Deciding to make sure, Miles picked up Gwen's phone and turned it on. Her lock screen showed a picture of her smiling and making a peace sign for the selfie while an uncaring-looking Miles raised an eyebrow at her in the background. How he had ever managed to act so gloomy in her presence for so long, he couldn't say, but he hoped to be able to change it soon. He still had a lot of darkness inside him, but Gwen had a way of making it go away, and he didn't want to continue being a burden to her. If Gwen Stacy wanted him to smile, he should be able to easily do that for her, because she gave him so many reasons to.

Swiping up on the screen and inputting Gwen's password (which he guessed correctly as her birthday on the first try), Miles went to her contacts and scrolled down to call her dad, then held the phone to his ear.

After a few rings, George Stacy picked up and asked, "Hey, Gwen, honey, what's up?"

Annoyed at the implication that Gwen's dad definitely didn't have his daughter with him, Miles nevertheless responded, "Captain Stacy, this is Miles Morales. Gwen went with me to Homecoming."

There was a pause, then Captain Stacy gained a note of concern in his voice as he said, "Uh, yeah, I remember you, Miles. Is this about Gwen? Is she alright?"

Trying to sound reassuring, Miles said, "Uh, yeah, she's probably fine. Listen, has she… talked to you at all since last night?"

Sounding confused, George responded, "Er, no, not really. Why? Did something happen at school or-"

Suddenly having a thought, Miles cut him off and asked, "No, nothing, but one more question, did the police hear about anything happening at Fisk Tower? An alarm or something?"

There was another pause, then George said in an even more agitated tone, "No, nothing. Is something wrong, Miles?"

Miles opened his mouth to respond, closed it hesitantly for a moment, then replied, "No, Captain Stacy. We just heard… that there might be fireworks there later. Sorry to waste your time, sir."

Miles then prepared to hang up, but George hurriedly said, "Miles, wait! Gwen's okay, right? If she's not there… just ask her to call me when she gets a chance, okay?"

Nodding determinedly in acceptance even though George couldn't see him, Miles responded, "Don't worry, Captain Stacy. I'll make sure your daughter gets back to you real soon."

And with that said, Miles hung up the phone and set it back down, then turned to exit the room. Once again, he got a number of strange looks from the students who saw him exiting a girl's dorm, but this time Miles cared even less than before about what they thought.

He crossed the entire building and ended up back inside his own room, and once the door had closed behind him, Miles leaned down next to his bed and reached beneath it to drag out what looked like nothing, but then with the press of a button on Miles' phone screen, the air he had just grabbed from beneath the bed flickered and unveiled a large duffel bag on the ground, which Miles unzipped to reveal his Prowler uniform and claws.

He didn't want to do this, but the last time he had seen Gwen, she had been going to take on the Kingpin at Fisk Tower, and now he was starting to think that maybe she hadn't returned. Despite Murdock's blindness, his Uncle Aaron had always assured Miles that Murdock was the most dangerous person in the city, and if he had done something to Gwen, then he'd better hope that part of his control as the Kingpin was that he owned all the hospitals in the city, because he was going to need every single one of them. And even if he hadn't done anything to Gwen, Murdock probably still knew what had happened to her. Either way, Miles needed answers, and he wasn't going to get them as Miles Morales.

Slipping on one of his gauntlets and clenching it into a fist one finger at a time as he heard the device begin to hum with energy, Miles sighed to himself and said, "One last time."

Then, knowing that he couldn't waste any time, Miles quickly removed his school uniform and changed into his Prowler costume, feeling ashamed as he did it for already breaking his promise to Gwen to stop being the Prowler. Then again, he technically hadn't made the promise yet, right?

Securing both of his gauntlets on his wrists once he was fully dressed, Miles willed his mask back over his face and said, "Guess I'm not good at retirement."

The words felt strange on his tongue, seeing as Miles had hardly made any jokes since his dad had died, but it was also somewhat familiar, like an old friend that he hadn't seen in many months. And speaking of friends, it was time for him to find out what happened to the only one he had left, and get her back so she could make better bad jokes for him.

Gwen POV

Whoever this "Spider-Man" guy was, he was good. Gwen hadn't been able to fight his methods of restraining her when she was at full strength, and everything he did seemed to only weaken her further. Throughout the day, he'd continued to have his spider-bots siphon out more and more of her blood, weakening her with every extraction to the point that she could now barely feel her limbs, even as her powers allowed her to stay mostly awake throughout the entire process of the involuntary blood drive.

Several more times throughout the day, she had tried to escape, but even the smallest movements caused her to get practically fried alive by the robot programmed to shock her without hesitation or mercy, which weakened her further still.

She had not said another word to Spider-Man since their little discussion hours ago, nor had he said anything more to her, and while that may be nice for keeping him from yelling at her, it was also really boring. Of course, the last part of Gwen to run out of energy would naturally be her mouth, so despite her exhaustion, she decided to finally break the silence as she saw Spider-Man walk back into the workshop from another connected room.

"Just out of curiosity, what do you want so much of my blood for?" Gwen asked him, and though Spider-Man gave no visible sign that he had heard her, she knew that she had gotten his attention. He loved to talk about his work, as she'd discovered this morning. "Because if you're looking for preserved dinosaur DNA, it's supposed to be mosquitos, not spiders."

Raising a single vial of Gwen's blood high, one of the many he'd collected today, Spider-Man answered, "What I'm looking for is far more valuable than the secret to recreating extinct species, Spider-Woman." Looking over his shoulder and seeing Gwen's surprise on her face that he had gotten her reference, Spider-Man continued, "Yes, I've seen the Triassic Park movies. Disturbingly abundant with scientific inaccuracies, but enjoyable nonetheless. But as I say, I do not seek to replicate the mistakes of the past. Even if I had an interest in such primitive creatures equivalent to an uneducated toddler, such wonders have already been worked, so why would I wish to do it again? No, as I told you before, I am in the business of creating the future."

He stopped talking at that point, and so Gwen was forced to prompt him, "And… do you actually know what you're doing with the future, Mr. Spider-Man?"

"Doctor," Spider-Man corrected firmly. "And certainly I know what I'm doing! Of course, it's an entirely esoteric subject that you couldn't begin to comprehend, but if you insist, I shall attempt to convey my vision, and if you are lucky, I shall concurrently edify your mind with the expanse of my staggering intellect!"

"Oh, boy, here we go," Gwen muttered to herself quietly, privately thinking that she may be just about to fall asleep yet again, and not due to how tired she was at the moment.

Looking back at her, Spider-Man began his story, "Just over a year ago, I was a scientist running my own start-up company. However, as always, I was unappreciated by my peers in the fields of my study, and so I was forced to make certain… compromises to keep my company above water, so to speak. One of these compromises was when I had to venture outside my personal expertise of cybernetics and instead work on a genetics project.

"However, I not only met that challenge with dignity, but I excelled in it even past the boundaries of all other so-called experts in the study. Working alongside a partner who naturally took all of the credit as soon as I had finished the job, I created a miracle that other scientists couldn't have even imagined: a genetically altered radioactive spider with a unique genetic marker that allowed its cells to interweave compatibly with human DNA."

Suddenly interested, Gwen asked, "Wait, so the spider that bit me and gave me my powers… you created it?"

Nodding to her, Spider-Man responded, "Yes, I created it, and I should've tested it earlier. The spider was only ever going to have a short life, and I knew that if it could work, my experiment to transfer spider-like abilities into a human, it could only work once. But I hesitated a moment too long, and the spider escaped and bit someone else just before it died. You, Gwen Stacy, and in allowing yourself to be bitten, you robbed me of my life's greatest achievement! I came so close to being the first and only Spider, and you stole it from me!"

Spider-Man was now glaring down at Gwen hatefully, and though she knew she was risking making him start yelling again, she said thoughtfully, "Man, you gotta be real careful these days about which bugs you let bite you."

Thankfully, Spider-Man ignored her ill-timed joke, and holding up the vial of Gwen's blood again like it was the Holy Grail, he said, "When I replicated the experiment for myself… I wanted to be the only one with this power, but I also want recognition for my accomplishment. So by studying your physiology compared to my own, I will unlock the secrets of this power in their entirety! I will uncover cures to diseases that no man has ever been able to find! I will find every hole in our biological structure and experiment to fill them as I please! And when I find no further use in keeping you alive, I'll dissect you and unveil the even deeper secrets hidden within our uniquely modified bodies. And with you gone, I will finally achieve my goal of being the only Spider-Man left on this planet!"

Looking at him in shock, Gwen commented, "And I thought frog dissections sounded freaky."

"Get all your jokes out, little spider," Spider-Man told her quietly, stepping forward and leaning over her menacingly with his dark mask lenses letting her see her own agitated reflection. "You won't get to make them for much longer."

Suddenly, there was a large rumble that shook the entire room, causing dozens of spider-bots to instantly swing over to Spider-Man's worktable and lock down all of his supplies with their bodies so that none of his projects got shifted by the abrupt shuddering of the walls.

Once he was sure that his work was all safe, Spider-Man raised one of his arms and pressed a finger to a circle of red glass on his vambrace, apparently the focal point of the device as it was the only part of the vambrace that wasn't silver. "Give me sitrep. Now," he ordered.

Immediately, a voice responded, speaking from the gauntlet as it said, "We don't know what happened! There's explosions all throughout the building, even on the top floor! Mr. Murdock's been evacuated, but Mr. Fisk is still unaccounted for."

Clearly unhappy with what he was hearing, Spider-Man glared and returned, "Clear the area as much as you can and begin putting out fires. My spider-bots will join you shortly. I will handle Mr. Fisk." With that, Spider-Man hung up the call and turned back to Gwen to quickly tell her, "Don't go anywhere while I'm gone, Ms. Stacy."

Ha ha, Gwen thought to herself bitterly as Spider-Man shot a pair of webs to the ceiling and pulled himself up to the nearest vent opening before disappearing through it. Most of his spider-bots followed right behind him, dozens moving towards the vents as he had done while others went through the doorway to the left of Gwen, presumably heading to the stairs.

However, one of the spider-bots had refused to move an inch, which was of course the one on Gwen's chest. Still, knowing that she might never have a better opportunity like this, Gwen glared down at the robot and said challengingly, "Alright, now we're in the future. Because every movie about the future has humans versus robots. So give me your best shot."

The spider-bot didn't react whatsoever, just sat there and kept staring at her. Satisfied that her lone guard was clearly drowsy and unattentive, Gwen tried a sneak attack and swiftly tried to bring up her arm, managing to shift the most she had since arriving here.

Sadly, it still was not enough to break her restraints, and upon feeling Gwen's movement, the spider-bot predictably sent a powerful shock through Gwen's body, causing her to gasp out and lean her head back, nearly knocked unconscious by this simple attack from the tiny robot. Her eyelids fluttering, Gwen fought to stay awake and momentarily thought about what she would give right now to be able to crush this little spider-bot in her hands.

No sooner had that thought crossed her mind than through her unfocused eyes, she thought she saw the spider-bot abruptly crumple inwards and explode in a shower of sparks. Frowning to herself uncertainly, Gwen wondered, Did I do that? Or am I hallucinating?

The next second, though, she was forced to conclude that it had been neither, as she then saw the clawed, metal hand that was grasping the spider-bot tightly, crushing it more thoroughly than an empty soda can, and despite her disoriented brain, Gwen was still fairly certain that her hands didn't have claws on them. Nor were they made from metal, as far as she remembered.

Then, someone stepped up next to Gwen, who tried to focus on their face through her confusion. Looking up, Gwen was surprised to see not the dark red and black mask of Spider-Man that she'd grown to expect throughout the day, but a dark mask with dimly glowing magenta lights around white slits for eyes blocking out the ceiling lights above her.

"You came," she noted weakly, recognizing the new arrival with an instinctive smile.

A moment later, there was a flash of silver and the sound of metal tearing, and Gwen felt her wrists and ankles get freed before Prowler held out a hand towards her to help her up as he said, "Looks like just in the nick of time."

Gratefully accepting his help in sitting upright on the table, Gwen jokingly responded, "A couple of minutes ago wouldn't have been so bad either."

Miles POV

Though he hadn't known what to expect when he'd come to Fisk Tower with the intention of finding Gwen no matter the cost, Miles would never have imagined this. Though he'd been the first to actually manage it, Miles knew firsthand that Spider-Woman was not an easy opponent to defeat, so he had certainly not doubted her ability to take down his blind boss. What he'd found from her instead of the expected victory, however, he was still trying to process.

Miles wondered to himself about what sort of manpower Matt must secretly have at his disposal if he not only managed to defeat Spider-Woman, but somehow keep her locked up in his basement for a whole day. The basement itself was nothing to scoff at, either. The way Gwen was being held down on a table with her limbs restrained and some little spider-themed robot on her that was in terrible taste, Miles felt like he had walked into some mad scientist's lab in a movie and left the world of sanity behind. Like, seriously, a spider robot that electrocuted people? What kind of spider had electric powers?

Anyway, Miles had arrived at Fisk Tower just a few minutes ago and had scanned the building for any abnormalities, which had revealed Wilson Fisk's almost unhealthy love of hidden doors. Like, so many hidden doors. Fortunately for Miles, his Prowler suit was equipped perfectly for the task of locating these secret doors as well as figuring out how they worked.

He'd scanned a hidden chamber beneath a statue in the lobby and decided to investigate, but after seeing a heat signature trapped and immobile inside the hidden chamber that Miles wasn't going to leave there even if it were someone other than Gwen, he decided against knocking politely and instead turned the statue to rubble to get inside.

Oh, and he had also hacked and activated some of the bombs Fisk had planted throughout his tower, especially the ones in his office. Of course, he felt kind of sorry knowing that Mr. Murdock was probably up there and would have a tough time getting out uninjured with his blindness, but by now he was also starting to get the sense that maybe Matt wasn't such a great guy after all. And hey, it was kind of Fisk's fault for filling his own building with remote-controlled explosives.

Anyway, now that he'd saved Gwen from her tiny mechanized cousin, Miles knew that they needed to get out of here, and soon. However, looking at Gwen's unsteady legs and the way that she winced as she tried to stand up, Miles shook his head and gently pushed her back down as he said, "Okay, that's not gonna work."

"I can handle it," Gwen argued stubbornly.

However, Miles fought back, "If things get rough while we try to get out of here, I'm not going to have much use for a partner that can barely stand."

Fortunately not wasting any more time and conceding to his point, Gwen looked down for a moment, biting her lip in thought, then her eyes widened as she looked up and asked him, "Wait, this is still Fisk Tower? Isn't this your workplace?"

Confused, Miles told her, "Yeah, but if you're counting on a warm welcome from my boss, I hope you're thinking of flamethrowers."

Tilting her head at him, Gwen asked, "Are you… joking? Right now? As the Prowler?"

"I blame you for giving me the instinct," Miles excused hurriedly. He wanted to assure her that the Prowler thing was only temporary, that he hoped to become simply a more light-hearted version of her friend Miles once they were out of this, but now wasn't the time to talk about it. "Anyway, you were saying?"

As Miles reminded Gwen of what she'd been talking about, she continued, "Right! What I meant was, you work here! Do you know a shortcut to get to the top floor? I heard they're evacuating everyone up there. We can jump from the roof and swing away!"

Wincing to himself, Miles responded, "Oh, yeah. That's… convenient. And I think I know the perfect way up, but how can we move you?"

Gwen looked at him with determination, then pointed towards Spider-Man's workbench and said, "I have an idea. Grab my web-shooters and suit from by that table over there."

Miles did as she'd asked, not sure what she had in mind, and though it took him a moment to find Gwen's "web-shooters" considering that he'd never known how she fired webs from her wrists and had no clue what they looked like, he soon found them and handed them to their rightful owner. Gwen pressed her web-shooters onto each of her wrists, snapping them in place, then took her suit from Miles as well and donned her mask only before bundling up the rest of the suit and webbing it onto her back so that it stayed in place there.

She then sighed and said, "The things I do for this job. Alright, Prowler, there's only one way we get out of this. I need you to do… that thing I told you never to do again. But this time, it's gonna be even worse for both of us."

Line Break

Gwen hadn't been lying. In their current position, Gwen webbed to Miles with their backs pressed against each other, it was far more uncomfortable than the last time he had carried her. The only small blessings to make it slightly more bearable were Gwen's suit on her back providing some padding so that their shoulder blades didn't rub against each other too much, and the fact that Miles was naturally a bit taller than Gwen so that her legs didn't quite manage to touch the floor as they dangled low behind him.

However, that was small comfort when they were found immediately upon exiting the underground lab and instantly found themselves under heavy automatic fire from Fisk Tower security personnel. Luckily, Miles managed to work his way over to the VIP express elevator entrance where he had first gone up to Fisk's office and pulled the heavy doors apart with his gauntlets before stepping into the elevator and looking around for something he could hack into to get the elevator moving while Gwen fired bursts of webbing back behind them to blind and disorient their attackers.

However, it was slow work, as in addition to his frustrating lack of progress and stray bullets hitting the walls around Miles' head, Gwen's constant movement on his back was incredibly uncomfortable, and Miles shifted her body with annoyance and muttered, "Is there any way you could defend us a bit better?"

"Is there any way you could get us upstairs a bit faster?" Gwen retorted.

Looking straight up and noticing a maintenance hatch in the roof of the elevator car, Miles muttered to himself, "Well, I guess there's always the express express elevator." Then, Miles crouched low and launched straight upwards towards the ceiling on a blast from his shoes, though while he and Gwen together couldn't fit through the maintenance hatch, Miles was forced to punch straight through the ceiling in order to get into the elevator shaft, where he landed on top of the elevator car and looked up to mentally chart a course to his destination.

He heard Gwen start to say something on his back, but whatever it had been, she broke off as Miles jumped up suddenly yet again and began to run up the vertical surface of the shaft. This was a far more comfortable type of transport for Miles, he found, as though he could feel Gwen's body weight added to his own whenever he stood still, his shoes had no trouble carrying her added mass straight up the shaft, and thus she became almost weightless like this.

Soon, though, facing backwards, Gwen announced, "Miles! The elevator's coming!"

Though he couldn't risk looking backwards while moving like this, Miles' eyes shifted to the hoisting lines in the center of the shaft and noted the way that they were quickly moving up and down, swiftly raising the car towards them.

With a glance, Miles could instantly tell that the line wasn't moving nearly fast enough to catch up to them, but he still didn't want any armed guards to arrive on the office floor with him and Gwen, so he promptly dashed across the shaft, rotating around in midair to land on his feet on the opposite wall with one hand gripping the ledge, and used his claws to cut the cable lines halfway across.

Immediately, the elevator car beneath them lost all automated power and kept rising on momentum for a few more seconds, then fell back down the few stories it had risen to the ground below, accompanied by several voices yelling in panic followed by a crash.

"Do you think they're okay?" Gwen asked, looking down the shaft worriedly.

Not nearly so concerned about the wellbeing of the guys that had been trying to kill them, Miles shrugged and responded, "If so, it's on them. They should know better than to take the elevator during an emergency."

Gwen gave Miles an exasperated look and commented, "I think I liked it better when you left the jokes to me."

Smirking to himself beneath his mask, Miles resumed his climb and responded, "And now you know how I feel."

Moments later, they arrived on the top floor, and Miles pulled open the heavy doors once again to let them out. However, instead of getting the free getaway that they had anticipated, they found three people already waiting for them, standing in a line in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass wall, though there wasn't much left of it as most of the glass had been shattered by the bombs that had gone off on this floor recently.

In the middle stood Mr. Murdock, his cane clutched in his hands held in front of himself, and looking completely immaculate and perfectly composed despite the rest of the room looking like it had just been through a terrorist attack… which, Miles supposed, it kind of had.

To Matt's right stood Mr. Fisk, who unlike his adopted son had dust all over his somewhat ripped white suit and had a large cut going down one of his cheeks, his bald head a bright red with barely-suppressed anger.

And on Murdock's left was a new figure that Miles had never seen before, though he was wearing a skintight costume and mask that reminded Miles of Gwen's Spider-Woman outfit, but in a dark red and black and sporting the large stylized symbol of a giant spider on his chest, silver vambraces on the backs of his wrists surprisingly complimenting the whole look quite well.

It was a rather intimidating sight to walk into, even if one of the guys was blind and another one was wearing spandex, but the moment was ruined as Gwen suddenly said, "Uh, why are we stopping?"

Having momentarily forgotten that Gwen couldn't see what he was seeing as she was facing the opposite way, Miles hurriedly turned sideways so that both he and Gwen could share sideways glances at the three men in their path. "Ohhhhhhhh. That's why," Gwen said with dawning understanding as she looked at each of the party-crashers in turn.

After giving Gwen a moment to process the situation, Matt spoke first and said, "Mr. Morales, what a pleasure to see you again. Or, not see, but… You understand. Anyway, Miles, what brings you back?"

His tone sounded convincingly polite and friendly, but Miles could sense the new hostility radiating off the Kingpin and for the first time since meeting him felt that Matt was truly someone not to trifle with. However, it would take more than that to make Miles back off during a rescue mission.

"Mr. Murdock, I'm here to officially tender my resignation," Miles answered casually like he wasn't standing in the middle of the destroyed remains of his now-former employer's office.

Tilting his head with interest, Matt said, "Really? Well, you'll be missed. In that case, Miles, you're free to go, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave any and all company property here. And I'm afraid that that includes Ms. Stacy."

"Hey, I'm not your 'property', Grid 3," Gwen asserted. When everyone in the room looked at her curiously, even Miles, Gwen threw up her arms disbelievingly and said, "Come on! The third Grid movie! Where the guy was blinded!"

"I'm afraid you are wrong, Ms. Stacy," the man in red and black suddenly said, speaking for the first time that Miles had heard and quickly drawing his attention away from Gwen's ill-timed movie reference. "I'm afraid that you do belong to me. Spider-Woman is mine!"

Taking note of this guy's possessive behavior, Miles quietly asked Gwen, "This guy isn't your boyfriend, is he?"

Casting Miles an incredulous look, Gwen asked back, "You're joking, right?"

Actually not joking this time, Miles wasn't quite sure if that response was supposed to be affirmative or negative, but he didn't have time to find out as Matt suddenly said, "Alright, Miles, time's up. Give up Spider-Woman and I'll let you go back to your life, free and clear. If you don't, I guarantee I can make your life… let's say, complicated."

Not even needing to think about it, Miles responded, "I am never losing her again."

Matt sighed in resignation and replied, "Then you will lose everything." He then turned to the guy with the bad Spider-Woman cosplay and ordered, "Get her."

The man in red, who had apparently just been waiting for permission to attack, instantly leapt high into the air and flew towards Miles with his fist reared back.

Though Miles was surprised to see that this guy actually had powers like Gwen's to match his costume, it seemed that both he and Gwen had expected him to do something like this, as Gwen instantly fired a burst of webbing from both wrists that the man had to raise his arms in front of his face to block, and while his sight was temporarily limited, Miles dashed forward and out of range of the man's crushing attack, then spun around and fired a Constrictor from his wrist that struck Gwen's biggest fan in the back and pinned him face first against the wall behind them.

However, though Miles knew that his nets should be able to pin anyone down indefinitely, he wasn't willing to run the risk with an unknown factor like this guy, so as soon as spider-guy was trapped, he turned back around and ran towards the open window behind Matt.

Unable to see what was coming for him with Miles' footsteps being silent, Matt didn't even flinch, but Fisk abruptly ran forward to meet Miles' charge. Sadly for him, that was a foolish decision, as Miles had directly met the charge of the Rhino in the past, and now even had to dial back the power he put into his gauntlet as he punched Fisk in the face to avoid killing him, instead only sending him flying back into a stone pillar that cracked beneath the man's weight.

Then, still unwilling to directly attack a blind man, Miles simply jumped over Matt's head to get past him, then landed on the floor once more before jumping out the open window. However, it appeared that Miles' Constrictor had held the man in red for even less time than Miles had anticipated, as he suddenly felt himself get pulled backwards in midair and looked back to see the man holding onto Gwen's ankle with a firm grip, glaring at them both through dark lenses as he fell with them and said, "You do not escape me, Spider-Woman! If I must, I will pursue you to the ends of the earth!"

Glaring back with equal intensity, Miles told him, "Yeah, try it and see what happens, fanboy."

He then forcefully kicked the man in the face with a mighty burst of energy from his shoes, simultaneously knocking the man back towards Fisk Tower, where he crashed through one of the few unbroken windows and disappeared from sight, and also launching himself and Gwen sideways to fly away from the building.

Falling from this height, they flew horizontally over several city blocks, getting far away from the still-smoking Fisk Tower, and Miles thought that they were in the clear until Gwen told him, "Uh, Miles? We're about to land on that roof, and I can't web-swing up here!"

Looking beneath them to see that Gwen was indeed correct, Miles thought about the problem for a second and came up with a crazy solution, but perhaps the only one they had. Moving quickly, he turned and used his claws to shred the webbing holding Gwen onto his back, then pulled her around and held her up above his head as he angled his feet straight down towards the rooftop.

When they struck, for the first time since getting these shoes, Miles actually felt the impact on his feet, but as they rolled and he did his best to keep Gwen from hitting the ground herself, he knew that at the very least, his plan had worked. It had been close, but his shoes had allowed them to survive a fall that even Spider-Woman never could've managed, and mostly uninjured as well.

However, as soon as they came to a stop, Gwen pulling up her mask and looking around in amazement, Miles looked around warily then extended an arm to help Gwen back to her feet, knowing that they still had big trouble on their heels.