[8 restart attempts remaining. Restart?]
For his third run, Charlotte stuck with the same opener and dived into the alley.
"Crap, a pervert."
Before the half-dressed couple could finish, Charlotte had already yoinked their clothes and webbed them to the top of the wall.
"I warned you. Next time, wear a mask."
He vaulted up the building, leaving the two of them staring at each other.
"When did he warn us?"
"I do not even know him."
"Oh no. That was Spider-Man. He saw us."
"Relax. He is not your husband. We will be fine."
With that detour behind him, Charlotte swung toward the clock tower.
Everyone was already brawling over who would save Gwen first.
It looked almost exactly like last time.
Rumbles shook the tower. Explosions bloomed. Tony kept showing off his bleeding-edge nanotech while splitting his attention to watch Peter Parker, as if this were a game.
The Chitauri focused only on Tony, mobbing him from all sides. Winning the match did not interest them at all.
They were following Lord Thanos's order to the letter. Kill Iron Man.
In the chaos, Peter Parker was locked down by Harry. Even when he knocked Harry back and tried to dive for Gwen, the Chitauri cut him off.
Spider-Man was an Avenger, which put him on their kill list too.
Once again, Lizard Parker caught Gwen at the last second.
Before the two of them could hit the ground, Charlotte landed on the balcony and fired webs with both hands, snagging them and leaving them hanging.
"Hand her over, handsome lizard. If you keep holding her like that, she will die."
"Peter."
In the Lizard's arms, Gwen looked up and her face lit when she saw Charlotte. Clearly she had misunderstood.
Charlotte strained to haul them up. His muscles locked, feet skidding. "This is not the time to play Beauty and the Beast. A little teamwork, please."
The instant he shouted, his web snapped. The recoil pitched him backward and a falling gear smacked him in the head.
Charlotte stared at the sky.
This batch of web fluid was garbage.
Forget it. Restart.
[You have been eliminated. Resurrection ticket not obtained. Reward: Strength +0.1 ton.][7 restart attempts remaining. Restart?]
Fourth run. Same plan.
Charlotte hit the alley, liberated the couple's clothes with practiced ease.
"Mask up next time."
Back at the tower and right at the crucial moment, Charlotte webbed only Gwen in the Lizard's arms instead of both of them.
"Give her to me. She is going to die if you keep falling with her."
Before he finished the sentence, the web tore a strip of fabric and both of them dropped.
Charlotte closed his eyes.
Do not use webs to save a falling person. Especially if you are Spider-Man.
Restart.
[You have been eliminated. Resurrection ticket not obtained. Reward: Strength +0.1 ton.][6 restart attempts remaining. Restart?]
Fifth run. Alley again. This time he plugged their mouths with webbing and left them hanging from the billboard.
Fire streaked overhead and he swung after it.
Same scene, same beats. After Lizard Parker caught Gwen, Charlotte fired a flurry of lines and managed to secure the falling pair.
This time the web did not break.
He did not even get to react before another explosion ripped across the top of the tower. A Chitauri skiff spiraled down and the blast swallowed Charlotte whole.
[You have been eliminated. Resurrection ticket not obtained. Reward: Strength +0.1 ton.][5 restart attempts remaining. Restart?]
Charlotte exhaled.
Five restarts had pushed his strength to 1.5 tons, yet he still did not have the durability to participate in the Battle for Gwen.
If he got clipped by the crossfire, his frail little body folded instantly.
Maybe he could intercept Harry ahead of time and stop him from grabbing Gwen in the first place.
But the mission demanded that he save Gwen when she was falling from the clock tower. Even if he kept her from being taken, it would not count as a win.
He thought it through. Across all these retries, the Chitauri only attacked Tony and Peter Parker.
Harry's real target was Peter. Tony kept glancing at Spider-Man and, distracted, missed the cleanest window to save Gwen.
To be precise, Tony was not taking the Resurrection Match seriously.
Peter needed no explanation. Real life was messier than the movie, and he had even less time to get to Gwen.
It was obvious Peter was not trying to save her for a resurrection ticket.
Which left Lizard Parker. Tough hide, huge frame, best positioned to save Gwen in the chaos.
Maybe the play was through him.
Charlotte tapped [Restart].
Same opening. Charlotte reached the tower. The melee erupted. He locked onto the Lizard climbing the wall and dropped to the exterior.
"Hey, lizard hunk, small proposal. Let us talk about saving Gwen. You should have time. Nobody is hiring with that face anyway."
He scrambled up the wall beside him, copying the Lizard's motion.
"Get lost."
The Lizard roared. His tail whipped out and hammered Charlotte into the masonry.
His spider-sense had not fired at all.
Half-buried in a man-shaped crater, Charlotte watched Gwen die again and felt very, very tired.
No talking to him when his emotions spiked.
Another wave of Chitauri fire rolled through and everything went black.
Seventh run.
The countdown ended and Charlotte abandoned the old plan.
He raced for the tower and did not stop at the neighboring rooftop.
Thwip.
He slingshot through a shattered window into the clock tower.
Clatter.
A green shape crashed through the glass and came straight for him.
"Spider-Man."
Lizard Parker lunged, springing from gear to beam, cutting Charlotte off.
Charlotte shrugged. "Name is Charlotte Parker. We want the same thing. Work with me and we can save Gwen."
"Impostor. You are not worthy."
The Lizard's eyes sharpened. Anticipating that, Charlotte fired a line and vaulted to a higher platform without another word.
If he could not talk him down, he would try something else.
"I will tear you apart."
The Lizard gave chase, smashing through clockwork as he went.
Gears rained down the shaft. Watching the carnage, the Lizard failed to notice Harry dropping Gwen.
A pumpkin bomb flashed. More blasts tore the tower's crown. With the Chitauri arrival, heat shattered the glass. A cluster of nanobots braced under Gwen and carried her into the tower's shadow.
"Peter."
Gwen screamed, and both of them answered at once.
"Gwen."
"Gwen."
Peter Parker abandoned Harry and dove. Lizard Parker leaped without hesitation.
Gears filled the air. They met midfall.
"Out of my way."
The Lizard shredded a spinning gear with his claws and swept his tail to pulp the impostor.
"What."
Peter twisted through the debris with web-assisted footwork, slipped past the Lizard, and arrowed for Gwen again.
"Peter, you will not save her."
The Green Goblin streaked in. Micro-missiles rippled off his glider. The blast swallowed the shaft.
The tower groaned.
"No."
In their widening eyes, a third line snapped across the inferno. Another red-and-blue figure drove through the heat toward the flames about to swallow Gwen.
Shrapnel sang. Charlotte wrapped Gwen to his chest as metal teeth bit into his back and tore through the suit.
Holding on through the pain, he gripped a web with one hand, cradled Gwen with the other, and bled off momentum into a rough landing. His knees buckled as soon as his feet touched stone.
Beside him, Gwen seized up. Blood spread across her abdomen.
Her eyes flooded with terror. She tried to speak, but a mouthful of blood stole the words.
She turned her head and saw the other Spider-Man collapsing too. The fear in her eyes slowly drained away.
In that moment, Charlotte witnessed every detail of Gwen Stacy's death.