The Green Goblin's body was impossibly hard, like solid steel! Peter felt like he had misjudged the height of a dive and slapped face-first onto concrete from a tall platform. Or like running a 100-meter dash and running directly into a brick wall without braking. The entire surface of contact, his whole body, burned with searing pain. His nose and eyes felt disconnected from his face. He was stunned!
But The Green Goblin's reaction was also strange. One moment it was full of life, chasing Gwen. The next, after being hit by Peter's bizarre tackle, it wobbled and stumbled off the platform, like a camel finally broken by a single straw.
Peter, still dazed, fell off the platform with the Green Goblin.
Gwen desperately lunged forward, reaching out a hand to grab him. However, due to her injuries, she was a fraction of a second too slow. When her hand finally grasped Peter, his body was already falling. More frustratingly, whether intentionally or not, the Green Goblin's massive hand had clamped onto Peter's leg. The drag accelerated his plummet. Gwen, pulled by the sudden force, was also yanked downward.
RUMBLE! A loud crash echoed from somewhere below.
Peter was jolted from his stunned daze and immediately realized his predicament. His posture looked ridiculous: —One foot was gripped by the Green Goblin, pulling him down. —One hand was held by Gwen, pulling him up. And looking down, he saw the dazzling, colliding Particle Streams! They were about to fall straight into it! Although this was part of the original plan, it wasn't supposed to happen now! They still needed to help Miles defeat Kingpin!
Peter vigorously shook his foot, trying to break free of the Goblin's grip. But the Goblin seemed completely lifeless, its hand merely retaining the death-grip posture—how infuriating!
"Gwen, it looks like this is where we say goodbye." Seeing the futility of struggling, Peter looked up at the girl above him.
Gwen tore off her white spider-mask, and using the connection of their joined hands, leaned closer to Peter. She spoke in a voice only he could hear: "You kissed me. I'll be keeping that score settled."
"Uh..." Peter flushed. "I was saving your life!"
"Hmph! We both have superhuman constitutions. We don't need mouth-to-mouth resuscitation! I would have recovered after resting for a while!" Gwen scoffed.
"I—I didn't know that did I? You know I'm still a beginner," Peter mumbled defensively.
Gwen smiled cunningly: "Talking won't help now... Here, smile for the camera~" She pulled out a phone from nowhere—a confusing detail, as Spider-Suits generally don't have pockets. Peter instinctively managed a strained smile. The result was a two-person photo with Gwen at the top, Peter next, and a massive Green Goblin at the bottom.
"That's not fair! I didn't get a copy!" Peter protested.
BOOM— The dazzling particle streams surged toward them from both ends. Peter instinctively shut his eyes. A moment later, Peter felt both his hand and his foot go slack. Clearly, Gwen and the Green Goblin had vanished. In his ear, the girl's soft whisper remained: "I'll remember you, at least. You took my first kiss..."
Peter pulled back the hand Gwen had held; a lingering warmth remained. For a moment, he felt a strange sense of loss.
Wait! Gwen had disappeared. She must have returned to her universe. What about him? Was he undergoing dimensional travel, returning to his own world? It didn't seem like it.
Peter opened his eyes, confused. He was still surrounded by the luminous particle streams. Vibrant, multicolored light flashed and pulsed around him. Microscopic particles converged, colliding, and annihilating each other.
But what truly astonished Peter was this: A series of images flashed before his eyes. There was a muscular Tobey-Spidey in a classic red-and-blue suit, a lanky Andrew-Spidey in his Amazing suit, and a youthful, shorter, highly energetic Tom Holland-Spidey wearing a jacket over his suit, and... They were all different versions of Spider-Man! Each frame seemed to represent a universe where a Spider-Man existed!
What in the world was happening? Peter was utterly bewildered.
Meanwhile, in Kingpin's Particle Collider Control Room.
"Bad news, Boss! The power consumption of the collider just surged tenfold!" a technician cried out anxiously. "What? How could this happen?" Kingpin roared in fury. "Find the cause immediately!" "Yes, sir!" "Have my family's profiles been located?" Kingpin demanded. "Not... not yet, sir," another technician responsible for genetic matching stammered. The moment the words left his mouth, he felt Kingpin's murderous gaze. He quickly explained: "It was projected to be successful in about thirty seconds, but at the current energy drain, the collider can only maintain operation for less than twenty seconds! So..." "Blast it! Then activate the backup power immediately!" Kingpin smashed the console in front of him, enraged. The only reason he risked destroying Brooklyn to build this Particle Collider was to find his deceased wife and son in a parallel universe! If he failed, what was the point of everything he had done?
"Yes, sir!" The technician shivered and quickly began the operation to connect the reserve energy units to the accelerator. This operation carried immense risk. The collider's cooling system capacity was closely matched to the energy consumption of each unit. Adding more power units now would drastically increase the demand on the cooling system. If that demand exceeded the system's operational lifespan... The technician didn't dare to complete the thought. But he also dared not raise an objection. A raging Kingpin would literally crush a person into a pulp!
Within the Particle Collider stream. Peter felt a profound, subtle sensation. He raised his hand. His body had just undergone another Quantum Decay reaction, similar to the first time he entered this universe. But this time, the process was incredibly brief. It reversed itself almost instantaneously.
Then came a powerful feeling of hunger! His body felt like a ravenous maw, frantically devouring a special kind of energy within the particle streams. And as his body devoured this energy, it was rapidly being enhanced! Strength, agility, speed, durability, and even his mind! A complete, instantaneous overhaul!
Peter felt better than ever before! Even the injuries he sustained from fighting the Green Goblin were already completely healed.
"What... what is happening?"