Chapter 198: This Time, I'm the One Saving Spider-Man
Otto had seen enough. He moved to stop Electro — and got a face-full of consequences instead. With the arc reactor amplifying his output, Electro's discharge hit like a hurricane, throwing Otto clean off the building.
He arced through the air and slammed into the ground below.
That seemed to be the starting gun. The whole Sinister Six moved at once, every one of them converging on a single target: Peter.
He scrambled, weaving between buildings, looking for any opening that wasn't there.
The Goblin watched him struggle from above, grinning. He was enjoying this — every second of it, the power humming brighter in his hands the longer it went on. He battered Peter down floor by floor, building to street level, each hit landing harder than the last, until Peter was barely keeping his feet under him.
Then Aunt May arrived. She didn't hesitate — ran straight in to help.
The Goblin didn't even flinch at the sight of her. If anything, his smile got worse.
He called his glider and ran her down without a second thought.
She hit the ground and didn't get up. Something in Peter snapped — fury and helplessness colliding all at once.
The Goblin wasn't finished. He hovered overhead on the glider, voice sing-song and cruel.
"Peter, Peter, Peter. No good deed goes unpunished. You'll thank me for this eventually."
He looked down at May, still on the ground — and threw a bomb at her.
Peter dove for it. Tried to catch it.
The explosion happened anyway.
The shockwave tore through everything around them. By some miracle, May came through it unhurt — and the moment she could move, she was already crawling toward Peter, pulling him into her arms.
She'd nearly died because of him a minute ago. There wasn't a trace of blame in her at all. Instead, she held him and talked him down.
"You have an incredible gift," she said. "This power — it's something you were given for a reason."
Watching the Goblin escape into the distance, Peter felt the full weight of regret settle on him. He shouldn't have insisted on saving these people. He should have listened to Strange. All of this — every bit of it — traced back to his own stubbornness.
"With great power," May said, "comes great responsibility."
The words landed. Something steadied in him.
He knew he couldn't just give up now. Not after that. He owed it to her to get back up.
Then May went still.
The explosion hadn't hit her directly — but the shockwave had. It had been doing damage this whole time, quietly, while she pretended otherwise to keep him steady.
She lay among the broken brick, pale, breathing shallow. Even through the pain, the only thing on her mind was Peter — making sure he knew none of this was his fault.
Peter stood over her, eyes already burning.
She was the only family he had left in this world. Losing her wasn't something he could process. It wasn't something he could even let himself consider.
"Strange — Mr. Strange will know what to do!" he said, grasping for anything.
Then it hit him: Strange was still trapped in the Mirror Dimension. Because of him.
That hope died as fast as it had come.
"Tony — Mr. Stark, he'll know!"
He fumbled his phone out, dialed Tony Stark over and over.
Nothing. Just ringing into silence.
"Please," he said, to no one, to anyone. "Somebody — please save her. This isn't her fault. It's mine."
A voice answered from behind him.
"Hey, man. Looks like you could use a hand."
He turned. And froze.
"You... you're..."
Tobey-Peter pulled off his mask. Same shy, steady face Holland-Peter had seen across the room two days ago.
He gave a friendly smile. "Yeah. I'm Spider-Man too. Peter Parker — your friendly neighborhood one, apparently, same as you. I know you've got questions. We'll get to those. Right now, let's fix your aunt."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Senzu Bean — the one Ethan had given him back in their own universe, just in case, so he'd survive whatever happened until Ethan could get to him.
He knelt beside May and gently pressed it past her lips.
Holland-Peter hesitated for half a second — then chose to trust him.
A moment later, May's eyes snapped open, like nothing had ever happened to her at all.
Holland-Peter's eyes flooded with tears, relief crashing through him so hard it came out as a laugh.
"Am I... dead?" May said, dazed, looking around. "Is this Hell? Peter — why are you here too?"
She glanced around, bewildered, half-convinced she'd died and dragged her nephew down with her.
Holland-Peter pulled her into his arms, voice shaking. "May, you're not dead. You're okay. You're alive."
He held onto her like he was making sure she was real.
Off to the side, Tobey-Peter watched the whole scene and felt something tighten in his own chest. He'd lived a version of exactly this — except last time, he'd been the one on the ground, and Ethan had been the one with the bean.
It struck him, watching it happen from the other side now, how much had changed. He used to be the kid who needed saving. Now here he was, doing the saving for someone else's family.
May finally noticed the suit Tobey-Peter was wearing. She studied it — identical, down to the stitching, to the one her own Peter wore.
She walked over to him, still a little shaky. "Thank you for saving me," she said. "I'm sorry — who are you?"
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