"Peter, you… no, you are not Peter." Gwen's face changed. She took a small step back.
Charlotte pulled off his mask, revealing a young face.
"I am Charlotte. Charlotte Parker. A very hands-on Spider-Man. I got into a bit of trouble recently, which is why you are seeing me instead of him. Oh, and ease up on the shocked face. By the way, what did you have for dinner? I can smell a hint of beef pizza. My favorite. Sadly, Spider-Man does not have pockets, so I am not carrying cash. You could consider treating me."
"Wait, Mr. Spider-Man, my head hurts. Can you tell me why you saved me?" Gwen pressed a hand to her forehead. She felt like she had three heads' worth of confusion.
Charlotte wiped the blood from his brow. A stubborn light flickered in his eyes.
"For myself," he said, voice steady. "And to break the lonely fate of Spider-Man."
"A lonely… fate?"
Gwen thought of Peter's losses and of Harry turning against him, and she understood.
Spider-Man is lonely.
It is destiny. It feels like a curse.
A flare of red-gold fire roared closer. Charlotte knew it was time to go.
"Miss Stacy, this is goodbye. Remember to buy me that pizza next time."
In the next heartbeat the void swallowed him.
He had borrowed Tony's help. Even if Tony had not treated the match seriously, the man could be very petty. Would not put it past him to tag Charlotte with something at the end.
Better leave fast.
The armor thumped onto the street. Tony's nanotech helmet peeled back, revealing a rather aggrieved face.
"Where is that guy?" he asked Gwen.
Gwen blinked. "He… vanished. In the blink of an eye."
Tony rubbed his temples. "Right. So I got played."
[You did not win this Resurrection Match. You will leave this world shortly. Please try again next time.]
The floating message tugged a laugh out of Tony.
"There is a next time?"
He decided it had to be a prank from the Infinity Stones.
Before Gwen's stunned eyes, Tony's silhouette shimmered and disappeared.
The fight between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin raged on.
Charlotte's universe. Empire State Building, antenna mast.
Whoo.
The night wind cut cold and hard. A red-and-blue suit drifted in, ash swirling on the gale and gathering to a point. Under the moonlight the deflated suit swelled back to shape.
Charlotte opened his eyes beneath the antenna where he had "died." System text bloomed before him and he could not help the small smile.
[You have successfully won this Resurrection Match.][Reward 1: Resurrection Ticket x1, consumed.][Reward 2: Strength +10 tons.][First win bonus: Nano Spider Suit, battle-damaged edition.][First win bonus: Spider-Totem Power x1.][Remaining restarts: 1, carried to the next match.]
He clenched a fist and felt the explosive power thrumming through him.
Eight restarts had pushed his base strength from one ton to nearly two.
Add in the match reward and he sat at twelve tons now.
Twelve tons was not impressive by Spider-Man standards. Closer to the bottom of the roster. But it was a huge step toward surviving what came next.
With strength came across-the-board physical gains. That steadied him.
He checked the extra rewards.
[Spider-Totem Power: The primal source of a Spider-Man's strength. The ultimate judgment of fate. An arcane force. Discover its uses on your own.]
A strange current flowed through him and vanished as if it had never been. Charlotte frowned slightly.
Spider-Totem. He had seen it in the comics, but what exactly did it do?
As for the nano suit.
He thought it into being. A palm-sized spider emblem blossomed in his hand.
He slapped it to his chest. In an instant liquid metal surged outward and wrapped him head to toe. The armor sealed out the high-altitude cold and conformed to him like a second skin.
He slid down the glass and hung there on a line. The facade mirrored a dazzling Spider-Man in gleaming metal.
Calling it a suit felt wrong. It was a suit of armor.
Under the moon the nano plating threw off a cool, metallic sheen. Gold tracery ran across the lines of the suit. The lenses glowed a soft blue, bright against the night.
Charlotte flexed and turned. He was very pleased with the look.
Shame it was the battle-damaged edition. No mechanical spider-arms. No reinforced web modules. Certainly no red-lens Instant Kill mode.
The onboard AI was basic too. Nothing close to JARVIS. It was built to make piloting easier and to stay out of the way. It would not block his wrist web-shooters and would not interfere with wall-crawling.
Everything was adaptive.
This was a nano suit built specifically for Spider-Man.
Satisfied, Charlotte stepped off the wall.
Whoo.
Wind howled. As he spread his arms, gossamer web-wings unfurled from under his arms.
His descent slowed at once.
With the wings assisting, he skimmed over several rooftops and then slipped into neon-lit streets.
Traffic buzzed. The city bustled. It was still the New York he knew.
"Oh, what is that?"
"Spider-Man?"
"God, he is not dead."
"That suit looks wrong. It is metal."
"He upgraded. Unbelievable."
The crowd's shouts rolled after him. Charlotte was used to it.
He had not been Spider-Man for long, but he had not exactly kept a low profile. People paid attention to a superpowered wall-crawler. Plenty of New Yorkers recognized him.
What puzzled him was that, other than Norman, no one should have known he died.
So how did they know?
He found the answer when he reached Queens.
117A Blake Street.
Outside the window, a red-and-blue figure crawled up the wall.
Inside, Uncle Ben and Aunt May nestled together on the couch, laughing at a variety show.
Charlotte peeked in. The pale-blue lenses narrowed.
They looked comfortable. That eased his heart.
The program ended. Uncle Ben, still smiling, clicked the remote.
A well-dressed anchor appeared on the screen with a pleasant grin.
"Hi, everyone. This is Global News. Regarding the report that Spider-Man is dead, we are fortunate to have an expert in all things Spider-Man. He will share a few insights."
He passed the mic.
"Ha ha. Hello, folks. J. Jonah Jameson of the Daily Bugle here. According to information provided by the Green Goblin, we can basically confirm Spider-Man has been killed. The kid has not shown up for a whole week."
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