Spider-Gwen 3 || The Fall

Not Done Fighting || Gwen Stacy

"Help me now; how am I supposed to hide?"

-Sharks, The Warning

The air was thick with smoke, casting an ominous haze over New York City as Gwen swung around a building. She held her elbow up to her mouth as she coughed, holding onto the line of webbing with her other hand and swinging her feet up to get some momentum going.

The momentum pulled Gwen upwards, and she let go of the webbing to let herself sail through the air. Her suit (freshly cleaned by MJ) adorned her figure, but the blonde was without her signature mask this time: it was still torn from her fight with Otto, and her identity was no longer a mystery anyways.

As she let herself dive closer to the streets, the smoke cleared up a bit, but was replaced by heat. Intense heat that made Gwen's eyes sting and water. The streets were glowing with flames as the unchecked fire continued finding things to consume, and Gwen had to sling another web and pull herself back up.

Am I even close?? She wondered, trying to see through the billowing smoke as it poured past the buildings around her. Part one of her plan was already underway-MJ and Ganke were headed downtown around the fire to get set up for the fight that was about to go down. The redhead was the proud owner of more than one bass guitar and amp, so thankfully the ones that got destroyed that morning did not doom their chances against Venom. But in order to beat the beast, Gwen was going to need more than rock n' roll and her fists.

She was going to need Miles.

Gritting her teeth, she fired another web upwards, then pulled herself up in an attempt to clear the smoke and obtain a better view. Gwen's renewed strength caused her to soar through the smoke, eventually breaking free of the dark plumes to see where she was at. Before her was the south end of the city, with traffic pouring towards the Brooklyn Bridge as downtown residents fled the burning community.

Miles was going to be over there... MJ had told Gwen that he was helping his father and the rest of the NYPD with the evacuation efforts.

Wild swings of anticipation coursed through her-both the anticipation of getting to see the guy she'd bonded with on a deep, personal level, and also the anticipation of this potentially being their last moments together.

Gwen swung towards the bridge, seeing the majority of police cruisers parked there. As she grew closer and closer, she could hear the commotion shifting from impatient and fearful drivers honking at each other, to lifting their heads in astonishment as the unmasked vigilante approached.

She spotted Jeff directing traffic, then swung over to his police cruiser. Upon sticking the landing on the vehicle's hood, Jeff motioned for a nearby officer to take his place as he jogged over to her.

"Back in business?" He asked, referring to her restored abilities.

"Better than ever." Gwen quipped back, smiling momentarily before growing serious again. "Where's Miles at?"

"Telling people on their way to not drive back into the city." Jeff answered quickly. "What do you need him for?"

Before Gwen could answer the question, several car doors opened and shut. A large group of civilians had exited their vehicles upon seeing Ghost Spider, and were jogging over to her."Give her space, give her space!!" Jeff said loudly, stepping towards them and holding a hand out. The citizens did as the officer instructed, but looked over him to the young woman in the sleek suit.

"Is it really you??" One woman asked.

"Are you here to help with traffic??" Another person behind her questioned.

"Where's Spider-Man?"

"Is Doc Ock really dead?"

"Where's your mask?"

"Are we going to be okay?"

The barrage of questions disoriented Gwen for a moment, and Jeff started talking over them, trying to get them to calm down. But they weren't paying him any attention... in this moment, all eyes were on Gwen Stacy.

The blonde lifted up her hands in an effort to silently ask the citizens to stop rambling, and they grew quiet.

She took a deep breath, hopping off of Jeff's vehicle before walking over to them.

"You all need to listen to Captain Morales, alright?" Gwen told them. "Those fires aren't going to go away anytime soon, I'm going to have to go back in there and-"

"You're going back??" One man shouted in shock.

Gwen took a deep breath, and nodded. "There's something else back there... Something really, really dangerous." She warned them, her voice sincere and urgent. "Oscorp created it a while back, but it has a mind of its own now... and it's something that Spider-Man and I have to handle-"

"Miss Stacy!!" A new voice shouted, catching Gwen off-guard. She'd been so used to people calling her 'Ghost Spider' that she felt so strange being acknowledged by her true name. "I... I just wanted to say-"

Several citizens parted for the person speaking, and Gwen's eyes began to mist over upon seeing who it was-an older woman, one that Gwen remembered as the very first person she'd saved from a criminal years ago.

"I... I don't know if you remember me, but-"

"I do." Gwen said softly, a faint smile on her lips as her heart softened. Even though it had only been a little more than two years since she had warded off a robber from this innocent citizen, it felt like it had been a lifetime ago. She didn't remember ever getting to run into someone she'd helped after the incident had occurred.

"-Thank you so, so much for fighting to keep us safe." The older woman continued. "Thank you, and... and I'm so sorry about your friend."

The sincerity and meaningfulness that Gwen's fellow citizen spoke with forced a tear down Gwen's cheek. She looked around and saw other New Yorkers nodding in agreement, all showing support for the young person that had given and lost so much in such a short time. Gwen inhaled shakily, trying to not sob as the city came together to express their gratitude for her.

"I..." Gwen couldn't say anything in response, she looked away quickly to wipe her eyes before breathing again and looking back at the older woman. "...I'm not done fighting for you. Or anyone here... not yet." She promised. "Just do what Captain Morales is telling you to do and get out of here safely." Gwen told them, glancing up as she heard webs shooting some distance away. It was Miles, on his way back from spreading the word to people caught in traffic.Gwen didn't stick around, firing a web and pulling herself towards Miles. As she soared away, she could hear a collective cheer of New Yorkers, encouraged and uplifted by their brief interaction with one of the city's two superheroes.

"Miles!!" Gwen shouted to get his attention. She saw his head snap over, then fired a web at one of the bridge's suspension cables before pulling herself to it. Miles did likewise, and their hands grabbed the cable with almost no space between them.

"What's cooking, good-looking?" Miles teased, and Gwen could picture the grin on his face underneath his mask.

"Probably shouldn't make that joke when a city is on fire," She retorted, and Miles looked back and the rising flames and smoke.

"Oh... yeah, you're right."

"I'm going to need you to head back into the city with me," Gwen told him. "Ganke and MJ are heading downtown to set up another amp, I'm going to need your help getting Venom close to it."

Miles stayed silent for a moment. "Um..." He finally said, looking back at the inferno that was eating away at lower Manhattan. "...I'd say just let him get cooked. Everyone's getting out of the city, why go back in and fight him if he's not posing a threat to anyone?"

"Because he is posing a threat to everyone." Gwen insisted, causing Miles to look back at her. "Miles, that thing... it wants to spread to every person on earth and control them. Like it did to me, and... and Felicia." Mentioning her friend made Gwen's lip pout slightly, but she shook her head to refocus. "If we leave it alone, it'll eventually leave the city and go find some other place to start its mission. It's smart, it would find a way to escape." She told him. "If we don't go in there and stop it now, then there will be no stopping it, ever."

Her statements seemed to sway Miles. He nodded in agreement, then turned his attention to the suspension cable they were both holding onto. His hand drifted downwards, resting on top of Gwen's as her blonde hair billowed over her face. "How's the plan gonna' go, braniac?"

The playful name made Gwen smirk for a moment, and she found herself looking at the large hand that was laying across her own. "We're going to get Venom to chase us... make it seem like we're trying to get him away from the evacuation." She explained. "MJ and Ganke are going to be hidden on a building away from the traffic... Venom will follow us to it, MJ will play some groovy licks, and then we'll rip the symbiote off of Owen and-"

"Cast it into the fiery chasm from whence it came!!" Miles joked, making Gwen snort as she picked up on his unexpected reference.

"Didn't know you liked Lord of the Rings." Gwen mused.

"Eh..." Miles shrugged. "...My mom wanted to watch them with me. Saw the first one, wasn't very interested."

"You're missing out." Gwen chuckled. "I'm guessing you hated that the action was a bit sparse early on-"

"Oh, absolutely. Like, no fighting until about an hour and a half in-"

"-But there's more in the other two." Gwen promised. "Seriously, you've got to watch them."

"Hmm..." Miles said, his tone letting Gwen know that he was smiling dryly. "...Sounds like something that maybe you and I can do when all this is over?"

The request felt like a punch to the gut. Gwen fought to keep the internal screaming masked as she put up a smile. "Yeah... sounds like a plan."

After so long, so agonizingly long, Gwen had gotten a date with Miles. But it was looking like she wouldn't be around for it.

Gwen watched as Miles tilted his head and looked downwards, his posture indicating concern as he thought about the plan.

"You sure that we can pull this off?" Miles asked, his masked face lifting slightly so that he could gaze into her eyes. "That we can bait Venom into following us?"

For a moment, Gwen was breathless. Being looked at so tenderly by someone was a feeling she never wanted to get used to... She always wanted to have that giddy warmth flowing through her nerves whenever Miles looked at her.

But the warmth began to grow dull as a new sensation replaced it: a cold sensation, like needles prickling the back of her neck.

Gwen quickly looked down, seeing exactly what her spider-sense had been warning her about. Calmly walking past the hundreds of cars on the bridge was a young man about her age. His hair, once dark, was still bleached blonde from the preservatives used on him the past two years. And, just as in her nightmare, he was clad in a dark hoodie with a menacing white spider symbol painted on it.

"We won't have to bait him..." Gwen murmured, her concentrated gaze making Miles look at what she was staring at. "...He's coming for me."

Owen Octavius flipped his hood over his head, smiling darkly and lifting up a finger to his lips. Gwen looked on as the symbiote began to spread over his form, making the hood grow fanged teeth and eventually forming a vicious set of jaws. He grew taller and bulkier, his angry pair of eyes never leaving Gwen's gaze as the symbiote finished Owen's transformation process once again.

Venom opened his jaws and roared at the two, the booming sound echoing over the bridge and causing the citizens below to scream.

You've got to keep them safe... no matter the cost.

"Let's go!!" Gwen shouted, leaping off the suspension cable and slinging a web to begin the chase. Miles was on her tail, swinging and flipping through the air as Venom watched, his fanged grin showing nothing but deranged excitement as his enemies fled the area.

As expected, it didn't take much for Venom to give chase: he sprang off the bridge, sailing through the air as he reared his hand back to take a slash at Gwen. But she course-corrected, twisting her torso and making her momentum carry her right as Venom's claws harmlessly slashed past her shoulder.

She looked back to see Venom's frame sprout lines of black slime, which extended to the nearest building and safely pulled him into a perching position. Gwen quickly looked around for Miles, but didn't see him anywhere.

A sudden bout of worry gripped her heart-had Venom somehow gotten Miles without her seeing? But the sounds of webs being shot, accompanied by strands of webbing seeming to sprout from nothing and latch onto buildings, told Gwen everything she needed to know: he was invisible right now.

She breathed a sigh of relief, shooting another web to continue leading Venom into the trap. I wish I could turn invisible, Gwen mused. I'd trade my crazy future-seeing nightmares for that in a heartbeat.