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Right now, Peter—dressed in his black spider suit—was staring blankly at the Spider-Woman standing in front of him.
Her outfit looked exactly like the one from the animated series. That skin-tight suit perfectly outlined her almost flawless figure.
It hugged her legs like black stockings, making her look even more curvy, and her legs appeared longer and more slender.
The next moment, Peter activated his super-vision.
Instantly, the black spider suit on the Spider-Woman turned nearly transparent to his eyes.
"So white... ahem, yeah, it really is her. She is my classmate, Gwen Stacy."
Swear to God—Peter only used his x-ray vision to confirm her identity. That was the only reason. Really.
"Put him down, now! He's about to suffocate!"
At this point, Gwen didn't have time to wonder why this guy was looking for her—or why he was staring so intensely.
Even though his gaze gave her a slightly creepy feeling…
But as Spider-Woman, she couldn't just stand by and watch someone die in front of her, even if that person was a criminal.
"Oh, right! Totally forgot about him."
With Gwen's reminder, the mysterious man finally seemed to realize he was still holding someone.
"Alright, he's yours."
As he spoke, he casually tossed the guy toward Gwen.
But despite how casual the throw looked, Gwen's body immediately tensed up. Her spider-sense kicked in at full force.
Because the guy that was "lightly tossed" at her was basically flying at her like a freaking cannonball.
The insane speed and force behind it instantly triggered her danger sense.
She instinctively leapt to the side, narrowly dodging the human projectile just before it crashed into her.
"Was that on purpose?!"
Gwen was furious. She'd dodged the attack, sure, but she had no time to go yell at the mystery man.
Even though she avoided getting hit, that poor dude was now flying out of the alley at breakneck speed.
If she didn't act fast, there was no way he'd survive the landing with that kind of force.
Not one to let anyone die in front of her, Gwen didn't hesitate. She spun around and fired a webline.
"Yes! Got him—!"
Her web shot hit the flying guy dead on, catching him midair. But before she could celebrate—
"Ugh! So heavy!"
A crazy amount of force traveled up the web, nearly yanking her off her feet.
It felt like she was going to be pulled along for the ride.
But Gwen wasn't about to give up. She grabbed the web with both hands and shouted, "Damn it—stop right there!"
For the first time since getting her powers, Gwen was using all her strength.
She could easily punch through a wall, flatten a car, or send a regular guy flying with one hit. That's how strong she was now.
But right now, all of that strength was barely enough to stop this one guy who'd been casually thrown at her.
The tension between her pulling and the guy's momentum was so extreme that her special spider silk was stretching to the breaking point.
Still, Gwen managed to stop him in time and reel him back in.
"Did you really throw him at me on purpose, or was that just an accident?"
She webbed the unconscious man to the wall, then turned back to the mysterious figure with a sharp glare.
"My bad. If I say it was an accident, would you believe me?"
Peter's voice came from under the Spider-Man-style mask, slow and kind of awkward.
"Believe you? Yeah right."
There was no way Gwen was buying anything this guy said.
"Who the hell are you? And… why are you dressed like that?"
Now that things had calmed down a little, Gwen finally had the chance to take a good look at him.
His all-black spider suit made her raise an eyebrow. Add a few red or white stripes and it would've looked almost like a match for her own…
"Ugh, what the hell am I thinking?" Gwen suddenly shook off that weird idea.
"Who am I? You can call me… Tobey Maguire. Or…"
Under the soft glow of the moonlight, the mysterious figure's black spider suit looked even more ominous and eerie.
"…you can call me Venom-Spider!"
"Venom-Spider? Wait… no way. You… how could you…"
Gwen stared in disbelief. How could someone else in this city have powers like hers—powers from being bitten by a genetically-altered spider?
"That's right. Just like you, I got bitten by a mutated spider, which gave me these superhuman abilities."
"But here's what you didn't know: there wasn't just one spider—there were two. The one that bit you was female. Mine was male."
Peter, now wearing his Venom disguise, was completely making this up as he went along.
"That's impossible!"
Gwen felt like the whole thing was too absurd to believe.
But then, something clicked in her mind. She hesitated for a moment, and asked carefully, "Then… what's our relationship?"
"Exactly…" Peter's voice suddenly turned cold. "We're… archenemies!"
"What?"
Before Gwen could react, Peter raised his hand. A web shot out from his wrist, aiming straight at her.
Gwen's spider-sense flared just in time. She barely dodged the web, twisting her body mid-air in an agile move.
Without a second of hesitation, she fired her own web toward a nearby building, launching herself up. She grabbed on and landed on a rooftop, staring down at Peter from above.
"Tobey Maguire, huh? I don't know where your powers came from, but there's no way it happened the way you said."
Now Gwen had regained her cool. She spoke slowly, analyzing the situation.
"If you'd paid attention in biology class, you'd know female spiders are stronger than males."
"In fact, sometimes they eat the males."
With that, she gave Peter no chance to respond. She leapt off the rooftop straight at him.
Her long, graceful body twisted through the air like a professional diver. She performed a high-difficulty spin—seven and a half full rotations in mid-air.
At the same time, she fired two webs from her wrists down toward Peter. But Peter easily dodged them.
Still, the webs stuck firmly to the ground.
Gwen used the tension in the web-lines to shift her momentum and angle. Then she came in feet first, aiming a vicious kick straight at Peter.
When facing someone with powers like hers, Gwen didn't hold back—she gave it everything she had.
"Damn…"
Peter, still using his enhanced vision, didn't seem to register any danger at all.
It wasn't until Gwen's foot was inches from his face that he slowly raised his arm.
Bang!
There was a heavy thud—but Peter didn't budge. The only sign he was hit at all was the deep double footprint his feet left on the pavement.
Gwen, on the other hand, was sent flying by the rebound force. She flipped through the air a few times before landing on the ground.
Her landing wasn't exactly a mess, but her heart sank.
"This Venom guy… he's insanely strong."
"....."