Finally, the encounter between Gwen's group and Peter was as awkward as it was unexpected. Inspector George Stacy, who was planning to head out once more to seek allies within the NYPD, ran into the three of them—specifically Gwen—the moment he stepped out the door.
"Gwen?!"
Inspector Stacy looked at his daughter in disbelief, unable to comprehend her presence here. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a bewildered tone.
"Uh, I..."
"Gwendolyn's abilities are vital to us. Without her, we wouldn't have been able to cross the Manhattan blockade," Cindy said, stepping in to bail Gwen out. Unfortunately, it wasn't the kind of help Gwen wanted. Upon hearing this, Inspector Stacy's disbelief only deepened. "What do you mean? Are you saying Gwen is a super-powered individual?"
A question mark slowly formed over Cindy's head as she turned to look at Gwen.
It was hard to believe. Neither she nor Peter seemed to hide their abilities from their families; Peter had even mentioned that Inspector Stacy knew his secret identity. Yet, you haven't mentioned your powers to your father?
Forget superpowers, I haven't even told Dad that I didn't sign up for the ballet class at school and joined a rock band to play the drums instead. Gwen let out a helpless sigh at the thought.
"It's... complicated. In short, I have powers, but they aren't for combat. Happy now, Dad? Where's Peter?"
"He's resting. He's injured, and he's lost his powers..."
"What?"
Gwen was stunned, while Cindy was extra confused. If Peter had lost his abilities, why could she still sense him? This clearly didn't add up.
"I have things to attend to. Just don't cause any trouble for everyone, Gwen."
"What do you mean, 'cause trouble'..."
Gwen muttered to herself as she followed the others into the temporary stronghold. There, she saw Peter lying on the ground. He was sleeping—presumably—looking quite peaceful, aside from the strange, unfamiliar white suit he was wearing.
There were others present as well, such as Mr. Negative, Martin Li; Cloak and Dagger, who had just been found; and an uninvited Punisher. The Wild Pack was also there, though Silver Sable and Black Cat were absent.
"Alright, looks like everyone is here." Gwen knelt beside Peter and asked, "How is he?"
"The situation isn't great. Otto—or rather, Doctor Octopus—injected him with a retroviral serum that has left him extremely exhausted. He needs rest." Dr. Connors sighed helplessly. As the only scientist currently on-site, he was responsible for caring for Peter alongside Martin Li. Meanwhile, Cloak and Dagger were tasked with teleporting other important figures out of Manhattan.
As for the ordinary civilians, while Doctor Octopus didn't care about their lives, he hadn't reached the point of indiscriminate slaughter. As long as they didn't engage in combat, there was actually nothing for them to worry about right now.
"I heard Peter lost his powers, but I can still sense him."
Hearing Cindy's words, Dr. Connors froze for a moment before realizing who she was. He nodded quickly. "Oh, you must be Agent Silk. Yes, thanks to the fact that Spider-Man's body contains DNA from more than three different sources of mutated spiders, the serum essentially failed to have a permanent effect. It merely suppressed his abilities temporarily. If we can find a sufficient stimulus, we might be able to reignite his powers..."
Before Dr. Connors could finish, Gwen pulled another vial of serum from her pocket. "Will this work?"
"What is this...?"
"A spider isotope from Earth-65. It can grant spider-powers for a short duration. Peter brought one back from Earth-65 and had me keep it."
Connors scratched his head, his mind racing for a moment. Realizing why Peter Parker hadn't handed this serum over to Oscorp or S.H.I.E.L.D., he nodded in realization before quickly shaking his head. "I'm afraid this won't do."
"?"
"If what you say is true, then this would be a fourth type of spider gene. Right now, Spider-Man has three types of mutated spider DNA in his system, which have reached a certain equilibrium—they're already at a saturation point. If we choose to inject even more spider DNA... I fear he might turn into something like the Lizard."
Thinking of the Lizard, several people instinctively visualized a man-sized spider and shook their heads in unison.
"We already have a plan. Oscorp has a vial of the Erskine Serum; we just need enough electricity and Vita-Rays to jumpstart his abilities. We have a plan for the electricity, but the issue is the Vita-Ray projection equipment. In such a short timeframe, it might be impossible."
Cindy pulled a small box from her pocket. Connors looked at her in confusion. "What is this?"
"A 1:1 replica of the Web Cave. S.H.I.E.L.D. reconstructed the entire base and all its equipment based on the original blueprints, then shrunk it down using Pym Particles." Cindy saw absolutely nothing wrong with this. "This contains all the equipment you need. We just need to find a suitable place to deploy it."
Connors nodded in a daze, finally understanding why Peter would never hand the spider isotope serum over to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Who the hell could trust them?
"Fine... we've solved all those problems. Now there's just one more issue: we need to bide our time and gather our allies." Connors said as he took the miniaturized Web Cave. "This isn't my specialty. I'm afraid we'll have to wait for Spider-Man to wake up before we can proceed with the operation."
"I have a question."
Gwen asked a question she was very concerned about: "I can guess that the black Spider-Man swinging around the streets of New York isn't Peter, but if all of you are here, then who exactly is that Spider-Man out there?"
Everyone looked at each other and shook their heads.
Meanwhile, Flash and Venom were currently being pummeled by other members of the Sinister Six. Their first encounter was with the Sandman, whom they hadn't fought before.
"There's sand everywhere! I can't deal with him!"
Running out of yet another sandstorm, Flash yelled at Venom. Venom expressed the situation just as helplessly: [I don't know. Spider-Man used lightning to vitrify the sand.]
"Well, can you use lightning?"
Venom fell silent for a long moment before replying dejectedly: [No, I cannot.]
"Then we'd better run." Flash quickly tried to leave the area, only to see the Scorpion approaching from a distance. He couldn't help but complain.
"My god, not again."
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