Heroine (Truth And Death Are So Closely Intertwined)

Cheetah

Gwendolyn Stacy is sick of not being able to save those she loves. That might be an incredibly Peter-Parker-ish statement, but it's true. Peter slowly lost almost everyone around him, and now she's falling down that slippery slope, too.

Her father is dead. And Gwen was too late to hear his last words.

On that day, Gwen vows never to be too late again.

Ever.

---

Over the course of four months, Gwen works on developing a way for her to become faster. Not faster as in running a few miles faster than usual- Gwen is talking supersonic speeds. She wants to go fast.

So she engineers a chemical cocktail that, if hit with enough electricity at just the right time, should trigger a reaction that will give her speed.

Super speed.

Gwen takes a deep breath, taking in her surroundings. If she does this wrong, she might die. The drab, steel walls and the dent where Peter tripped and fell a little too hard. The flickering ceiling lights.

It isn't the most pleasant last sight.

Gwen takes a deep breath.

And throws the switch.

---

Peter is in the lab when all the lights shut off. He hears a crackle of electricity- Electro- his mind whispers to him- and a flash of light. He jumps up from his experiment, setting the fragile surface down on the microscope.

"Hello?" he asks hesitantly. No response. "Who's there?"

"Ugh..." a small groan comes from where the light came from. Before he can think the word 'trap', Peter is over by the location, his mind racing with the possibilities.

The reality is so much worse. Gwen is lying in a puddle of unknown substances, her body looking like it had just been struck by lightning.

In a way, it had.

"Gwen!"

Peter rushes to her side. Is she okay?

"Gwen!"

He fumbles with his phone, yanking it out and pressing 9-1-1 with shaking hands.

"Hello, what is your emergency?" a kind feminine voice asks.

"M-my friend. Sh-she's been electrocuted and there's a bunch of chemicals around her. Please help."

---

Gwen is in a coma.

Peter is crying and sobbing and- no, he never told her about Spider-Man- falling apart. He doesn't know who to go to for help, and the doctors might say that she might wake up eventually, but they don't know.

It's one more person Peter had lost.

The first few weeks are the most terrifying, when Gwen's health is constantly fluctuating, but after those first few weeks, it stabilizes.

But she still doesn't wake up.

---

It's been six months since Gwen stabilized, and she's finally waking up.

It's the middle of class when they call Peter to tell him that Gwen is regaining consciousness, and Peter dashes straight out of the classroom, ignoring the teacher's calls. He races across the city, taking buses and racing down the sidewalks, the possibility of swinging there never crossing his mind, until he reaches to hospital.