George was so shell-shocked that he completely forgot his own police confidentiality protocols.
"What the hell?! That billionaire is the red iron man we tracked the other day?!" George barked, staring at the TV. "That's not what he said when he gave his statement!"
But as George vented his frustration at Tony Stark for misleading the police, he suddenly caught the look in Gwen and Peter's eyes. For some reason, that specific look sent a chill down his spine.
"Dad," Gwen started, her voice steady but soft. "There's actually something Peter and I have been keeping from you for a long time."
Before she could finish her opening sentence, Grandma Pauline chimed in:
"Am I finally getting a great-grandson?"
George: "..." Gwen: "..." Peter: "..."
"Grandma, there's no rush for that. We should wait until Gwen is at least twenty-three or twenty-four," Peter replied, wiping cold sweat from his forehead.
It was, objectively, the perfect answer to please the elders. George's expression softened significantly, and he looked at Peter with a newfound shred of respect.
Grandma Pauline looked slightly disappointed, but she reached out and patted Peter's head affectionately.
"Good boy. I feel safe leaving Gwen in your hands."
After the little interlude, Gwen took Peter's hand, took a deep breath, and looked her father in the eye.
"Dad... what I wanted to say is... I'm Ghost-Spider."
George: "..." Pauline: Gasp—!
Before a stunned George could even react, Grandma Pauline suddenly clutched her chest. It seemed the elderly lady's cardiovascular system wasn't quite ready for a revelation of this magnitude.
Apparently, an unexpected pregnancy wasn't "shocking" to her generation, but vigilante granddaughters were a bridge too far.
Gwen and George panicked instantly. As George scrambled to find her nitroglycerin tablets, Peter had already moved. He placed his hand firmly on the grandmother's shoulder.
By the time George rushed back with the medicine bottle, he saw his mother bathed in a gentle, white light, her eyes closed in comfort.
Clatter—!
The pill bottle hit the floor. George stared at Peter in shock, suddenly feeling a bit of chest pain himself.
He had seen this power before. The Arbiter had displayed a restorative light during the school incident... though back then, he was repairing buildings, not people.
"Peter... so you're..."
George watched as his mother, now glowing with health, stood up without her cane and began tentatively jogging in place, even trying a small hop. He asked the second half of his question with a trembling voice:
"You're the Arbiter?!"
At this moment, George felt as if a century-old vampire had taken a steamroller to his worldview and flattened it repeatedly.
His precious daughter was the masked spider-woman he had chased across the city skyline.
And her boyfriend—the polite, seemingly harmless young man he had watched grow up—was the "Arbiter," the figure responsible for making several supervillains vanish off the face of the earth!
After the initial shock, George's first instinct as a cop took over. He reached for his waist and drew his service weapon, aiming it directly at Peter.
In George's mind, the Arbiter was infinitely more dangerous than Ghost-Spider. While the public (and J. Jonah Jameson) praised the Arbiter for repairing the school, George had his own criteria.
Ghost-Spider had never killed anyone. But the Arbiter? From Shocker to the Lizard, Green Goblin, Sandman, and Electro—not to mention the recent deaths of Bullseye and Obadiah Stane—those who crossed him were either missing or declared dead.
How could he hand his daughter over to a man who lived so far above the law?
"Dad, don't!" Gwen cried out, her heart breaking at the sight.
Even Grandma Pauline scolded him: "George! Peter just saved my life! Are you trying to kill me with stress?!"
Unlike the others who used words, Peter chose a more direct demonstration.
George's reaction had actually surprised him; he'd expected the Captain to focus his anger on Gwen's vigilantism, but instead, Peter had drawn all the fire.
Soru (Shave)!
Peter vanished and reappeared instantly in front of George. Two fingers clamped onto the gun barrel like a vice.
With a sharp twist of Peter's superhuman strength, the steel barrel was bent upward like a piece of soft clay.
George froze, his finger still on the trigger. The weapon was useless now; firing it would only blow his own hand off.
"Uncle George," Peter said, his voice calm. "I'm doing this to prove a point. If I wanted to be a villain and hide my identity, no one could stop me."
Peter then used the Horse Talisman's power to instantly restore the gun to its original shape. He pressed the muzzle against his own forehead.
"If you want to try, you can pull the trigger."
Looking at Peter's unwavering gaze, George finally lowered the gun. He wiped the cold sweat from his brow and forced a stern expression.
"Tell me, kid. Shocker, the Lizard, the Goblin... where are they? And the ones who died... why did you kill them?"
Peter didn't blink. He explained simply that Shocker and the others were currently "rehabilitating" as employees at Parker Technologies.
"As for Electro and Bullseye..."
Gwen couldn't help but jump in to defend her boyfriend. "Dad, Electro tried to kidnap me, to turn me into his slave.
Peter did what he had to do to save me. Bullseye was the same—he hurt me, and Peter made sure he could never hurt anyone again. We even have a bet about the legal system..."
She quickly explained the wager they had made. George let out a long, shuddering breath. At least from their testimony, Peter wasn't the chaotic-evil anarchist he feared.
Just as George was about to deliver a "tough dad" speech demanding they both retire, Peter interrupted him one last time.
"Uncle George, before you make a decision about Gwen and me, I want you to look at this."
Peter pulled a laptop and a thick ledger from his backpack—his "betrothal gift." George took them tentatively. He only needed to read the first few pages before his entire face drained of color.
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