Spider-Gwen 3 || The Fall

Take Action || Gwen Stacy

"It's not my fight no more, 'cause I'm not whole no more"

-Undone, Katelyn Nacon

"There!! Over there!!"

By the time that Jeff Morales's voice reached Gwen's ears, she had already spotted the person they'd both been searching for. Gwen tripped over herself repeatedly as she raced towards the unconscious figure, doing her best to sidestep and jump over rubble even though she lacked the superhuman forethought and agility she'd once held.

Miles was lying on the ground, his hand over his gunshot wound as Gwen finally kneeled next to him. She grunted upon trying to move Miles into a sitting position-another reminder of her present lack of superhuman abilities.

As Jeff's fast-moving footsteps came closer, Gwen gently worked the fabric of Miles's mask up and over his head. There was a nasty lump on his forehead, but that actually made Gwen sigh in relief-he'd been knocked out by blunt-force trauma, which in Gwen's eyes was better than the alternative of passing out due to blood loss.

Gwen looked back once she heard Jeff make it over, doing her best to remain composed in this moment. "I think he's okay..." She told Miles's father, who placed his hands on top of his head as he caught his breath.

"Even with the gunshot in the stomach??" Jeff exclaimed, pointing at the hole in his son's side.

The blonde's eyes fluttered to the injury momentarily, then went back to looking at Jeff. "It's going to heal up a lot faster than you'd think. We both have-I mean-Miles has a way faster rate of healing due to the spider bite."

That answer seemed to soothe Jeff, for the moment anyways. It probably helped that Gwen felt movement in her arms-Miles was stirring, his masked head rolling on his neck as he mumbled weakly. Gwen's hand flew to his heart to keep him still, her eyes wide with apprehension as his face was angled towards hers.

"You... got away?" Miles croaked, following his statement with a chuckle. "'Course you did... what can't you do, Stacy?"

Gwen grimaced despite the warmth that swarmed her cheeks. She was absolutely eating up the light flirts that Miles had been tossing her way the past few days, but that didn't change the fact that there were, in fact, a lot of things she couldn't do now.

"Easy there, Spider-Man." Gwen cautioned playfully, pushing the negative aspects of her situation aside as she got Miles to his feet. "We've got to get you home."

It had taken half an hour to get everyone back to Miles's apartment-Jeff had to use a pay phone to call Rio and tell her where to meet them, and then they had to ignore the hordes of New York citizens that saw the group helping the injured Spider-Man back home.

"What happened to him?"

"Is he going to be okay?"

"What was that monster we saw earlier?"

"Why didn't you just swing him home, Ghost Spider?"

That last question was one that Gwen refused to answer when she heard it. Underneath her own mask, she was fighting to keep her composure as the heaviness of not being the hero these people thought she was anymore. 

Once they were in the safe confines of the apartment, their familiar seating arrangements took place-Jeff and Gwen at the kitchen table, while Rio helped Miles to the kitchen in order to work on his injury.

Gwen yanked her mask off, her frazzled hair spilling out around her shoulders before she dropped the piece of fabric into her lap. She hunched forward, her elbows on the table as she took a deep breath in an effort to put on a brave face and whip up a plan to take advantage of this opportunity to knock down Oscorp for good.