[You have been eliminated. Resurrection ticket not obtained. Reward: Strength +0.1 ton.][You have 3 restart attempts remaining. Restart?]
Dangling on the vast cosmic web, Charlotte scratched his head. Gwen had died a little too quickly this time.
Then again, it made sense. The fight was brutal. With explosions coming one after another, any ordinary person clipped by shrapnel would struggle to live. He himself had died in that chaos too.
But this time he had been only a heartbeat short.
Again.
Eighth Resurrection Match. Charlotte reached the clock tower and ran into Lizard Parker.
Two figures vaulted up the structure one after the other, leaving wreckage behind them.
"I will tear you apart."
"Easy there, cranky lizard hunk. Our goal is to save Gwen."
"I will save her. You impostor can keep your nose out of it."
Crash.
With a thunderous impact the Lizard tackled Charlotte, baring his teeth in a savage grin at the Spider-Man before him.
"I will rip you to shreds."
"As I thought. You are just a monster."
The words made the Lizard pause.
"What did you say?" Rage gathered in his voice.
Charlotte smiled. "I said she is about to die."
He tilted his head, letting a spinning gear whistle past his cheek, still calm as ever. His spider-sense was unreliable. Dodging those gears came from experience earned through restart after restart.
Seeing the Lizard grow more agitated, Charlotte pointed toward the window. "In two seconds, she will be right there."
"What?"
The Lizard froze. Charlotte raised two fingers in quick succession, and Gwen flashed past the window exactly on cue.
"Gwen."
The Lizard forgot everything else. He crashed through the window without hesitation and dove for her.
Charlotte dusted off his hands and looked up, quietly studying the battle inside the tower without joining it.
His accumulated perks were almost tapped out anyway.
[You have been eliminated. Resurrection ticket not obtained. Reward: Strength +0.1 ton.][You have 2 restart attempts remaining. Restart?]
Restart.
Ninth Resurrection Match. Charlotte still did not make a direct grab for Gwen. Relying on "pre-reading" the chaos, he slipped past a storm of energy bolts and swung all the way to the top tier.
Without the memory of so many restarts, he could never have pulled it off.
"Mr. Stark."
He called out. Tony flinched.
"Peter."
Tony's gaze flicked between the two Spider-Men, then settled on Charlotte with a complicated look.
Only this Spider-Man had called him by name.
In the next instant, Charlotte slipped inside the clock tower.
Tony snapped back to the moment, poured power through the suit, and blasted the Chitauri. He did not look back at the detonations as he dove into the tower after Charlotte.
Boom.
Explosions rippled through the tower. Gears flew like shrapnel.
High above a massive gear, Tony's visor locked onto one of the Spider-Men.
Amid falling debris, Charlotte whistled a cheerful tune, weaving through the spinning teeth at an unhurried pace as if strolling through the chaos.
"Heh heh heh, Peter."
Harry Osborn stooped on his glider in a dive and slammed straight into a web net that had been strung in advance.
"Crap."
Bang.
He ricocheted and crashed into the ruins. The real Peter Parker and Lizard Parker dove for Gwen. After a desperate clash, they watched as webbing scooped her away and deposited her neatly into Charlotte's arms.
It felt rehearsed, every beat under his control.
After so many restarts, Charlotte had found the way to unlock his real cheat.
Peter stared at the Spider-Man before him in disbelief.That spider-sense was ridiculous. In a mess like this, the guy predicted every gear, every strike.
Who was he?
Lizard Parker only grew more frenzied, thinking of nothing at all.
"Another fake. Do not you dare take Gwen."
He bounded across the rubble. Razor gears carved bloody lines across his scales, but nothing slowed him down.
A vicious gust tore through the tower. Charlotte ignored it and swung toward the floor.
He had a helper.
Boom.
Just as the Lizard's claws were about to rake Charlotte open, an arc pulse blast speared down from above and hammered him into the ruins.
"Disgusting creature. Get away from him," Tony snapped.
"Damn you, Iron Man."
Roaring, the Lizard clawed his way back out and lunged again. The hit had not put him down.
Tony moved to block, but the surviving Chitauri swarmed and dragged him into another dogfight.
"Give her to me."
Gears rained like hail. The Lizard rampaged through the clock tower like a wild beast.
Peter Parker dove to intercept, but Harry slammed into him from behind and knocked him aside.
"Your opponent is me."
"I told you, Peter. I want you to feel the pain of losing someone you love." Harry's rotten-toothed grin split wide. The family illness had driven him completely mad.
He hated himself, hated his father, hated Peter Parker, hated this world, hated anything beautiful.
"Let us all be destroyed."
"Harry, stop."
Spider-Man and the Green Goblin tore into each other. Lizard Parker plummeted, about to overtake Charlotte.
Greed lit his eyes. He stretched his claws.
Just a little closer and he would shred this impostor.
A jagged gear nicked Charlotte's suit. The scent of blood flooded the Lizard's senses and drowned the last of his reason.
"Peter."
Suddenly Gwen's cry poured into the desert of the Lizard's heart like a clear spring, quenching rage and bloodlust in an instant.
"Gwen."
His pupils tightened. He stared at the girl in Charlotte's arms. Her face was full of panic and worry.
He had never seen Gwen so helpless.
In his heart, Gwen was Spider-Man. Calm under pressure. Protector of all. A hero who could defeat any foe.
But.
The Lizard drew a long breath. The snarl on his face softened.
He knew the Peter she worried for was not him, yet he still made his choice.
"You are not her," he whispered, as if saying goodbye.
Gwen's face blurred in his vision.
But one truth stood sharp.
She was Gwen, not Spider-Man.
"Impostor, you win."
His roar shook the tower. Lizard Parker shoved Charlotte and Gwen away with everything he had. A massive gear crashed down from above and struck him squarely.
The ruin swallowed him as the tower thundered.
Dust settled. Charlotte swung down on a web-line. Gwen stared at the wreckage, shaken, an odd sadness clouding her eyes.
"He saved us."
Charlotte let out a breath. "Yes. He was always going to save you," he said with certainty.
After so many restarts, he knew it now. Lizard Parker truly wanted Gwen to live, match or no match.
But the unfamiliar voice in her ear made Gwen realize at once that something was wrong.
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