The Destiny hurtled through deep space at extreme velocity.
Standing before the wide viewport, Peter watched as the glowing blue marble expanded frame by frame in his field of vision.
Almost home!
Just as the thought surfaced in his mind, a familiar stream of chatter crackled to life inside the captain's quarters—
Because the Destiny had drawn so close to Earth, it automatically linked straight into the Avengers' private internal communication frequency.
The second the connection was established, Peter caught a deeply familiar female voice:
"Is there still no way to reach Mr. Barton?"
The owner of that voice was none other than Gwen!
Peter's heart skipped a beat, a wave of profound longing swelling inside his chest.
He felt an overwhelming urge to jump onto the line right then and tell her how much he missed her, but the words froze on the tip of his tongue—
He wanted to see just how far Gwen could push herself without him standing by her side.
As he held his tongue, Natasha's voice cut through the channel:
"Still nothing. Barton has been completely dark for over twenty-four hours now! The 'Barton' currently causing terrorist attacks in the news is 100% a fake."
"Virtually the second I handled those blind fools on my end, Barton went missing... How could there be such a convenient coincidence in this world? This has got to be the work of those damned green goblins!"
No sooner had Natasha finished than Tony's sharp tone cut in:
"Barton, Steve, Banner, Davis... the list of missing personnel keeps growing. Damn it, haven't they already stolen our powers? Why are they still going after them?!"
"Guys, haven't you been keeping up with the latest news?!" Daisy's voice burst in, accompanied by the rapid, frantic clatter of a keyboard:
"Brand new 'superheroes' have been popping up all over the globe! Two of them, codenamed Mockingbird and Dragonfly, just publicly defeated the fake Hawkeye and the fake Cap right out on the open street!"
"Without a doubt, this is their newest strategy!"
"Those goblins plan to kidnap us originals one by one, send their shape-shifters to masquerade as us and commit atrocities, and then have another wave of their own people dress up as new 'heroes' to save the day!"
"That way, they not only paint us as irredeemable villains, but they also naturally inherit our popularity, our prestige, and our standing in the public eye!"
"They want to completely replace us! And then use our influence to usurp our homes entirely!"
Listening to Daisy's breakdown, every superhero on the channel turned pale with rage.
The Skrulls' strategy was utterly insidious.
It completely blocked off every avenue for a counteroffensive. Under these conditions, even the sharpest minds among them were at a total loss for how to break the deadlock.
After all, the tide was stacked overwhelmingly against them, and the enemy possessed power rivaling their own. It looked like a completely unwinnable checkmate.
Just as the line fell into a heavy, hopeless silence with everyone wracking their brains for a solution—
Clap, clap, clap~!
An eerily casual slow clap echoed through the channel.
Everyone froze.
Tony's face twisted in immediate frustration. Which blind idiot dared to clap and interrupt his train of thought at a critical moment like this?!
He instinctively opened his mouth to snap, a string of harsh words rising to his lips, but he halted mid-breath.
Wait... why does this exact style of obnoxious behavior feel so familiar?
Just as the realization clicked in his brain, a lazy, unbothered voice drifted through the comms:
"Not bad, Daisy. Thorough analysis! I really didn't misjudge you."
The instant those words registered, the entire communication channel exploded.
Practically every single member gasped in unison:
"PETER?!"
Meanwhile, inside her single dorm room at Empire State University, Gwen involuntarily bit her lip, feeling a tight knot twist inside her chest.
Peter... had heard their entire conversation.
What should I do? Will Peter think I'm completely useless?
He had explicitly tasked her with holding down the fort before he left Earth, yet she had still managed to let everything go to hell.
Her performance in this secret war against the Skrulls had been an absolute mess. She hadn't fulfilled her duties as a leader at all.
Peter had to be thoroughly disappointed right now.
Would he... stop loving me because of this?
The more Gwen thought about it, the worse she felt. She instinctively muted her microphone, refusing to let Peter hear a single crack in her voice.
Her performance was already embarrassing enough; the last thing she wanted was to show her weak side in front of Peter and make him think she was just a useless burden dragging everyone down.
"Huh? Sister Sif, where did Peter go?"
In the deck cabin of the Destiny, Mantis happened to pass by the captain's quarters and noticed Peter had suddenly vanished into thin air. She turned back to ask Sif what had happened.
Sif glanced at the empty cockpit, her tone laced with a faint hint of sour jealousy:
"He obviously rushed back to pamper his main lady first! Don't mind him—even without him here, the Destiny will still land right at its designated coordinates."
"Main lady?" Mantis tilted her head: "You mean Sister Gwen?"
Realizing how deeply Peter cared for Gwen, Mantis didn't feel a shred of envy. Instead, she felt an overwhelming sense of admiration.
To be cared for so unconditionally... that must feel truly wonderful!
I really hope that one day... Peter can care for me like that too, so I can know what that feels like.
At that very moment, while Mantis was quietly harboring her wishful thoughts, Gwen—who was silently shedding tears in her dorm room—suddenly noticed a soft purple radiance enveloping her body.
This is...
Staring at the long-absent purple glow, Gwen froze for a split second.
In the next moment, a pair of strong, familiar arms wrapped around her from behind.
There was only one person in the entire universe who could appear beside her so seamlessly without ever triggering her Spider-Sense.
"Now, who went and picked on my little crybaby?"
"Peter... how are you...?"
Peter reached out, gently running his fingers through her short hair as he casually teased:
"My main lady didn't lead the welcoming party for my grand return—how could that not get my attention?"
The extraordinarily tender voice whispered right against her ear, causing all the accumulated exhaustion and bottled-up grievances inside her to burst forth like a breaking dam.
She spun around, throwing herself directly into his warm, familiar embrace, sobbing so hard she could barely catch her breath:
"I-I'm sorry, Peter... I ruined everything!"
"Mr. Barton is missing, Mr. Rogers is missing... Those impostors are using our names to hurt civilians everywhere, and the whole world hates us now."
"I drafted the mutual-trust protocols, I made contingency plans, but it wasn't enough... I'm so useless. I couldn't stop them at all."
Listening to her broken recount, Peter remained silent, softly brushing his fingers across the dark circles beneath her eyes and her pale, exhausted lips.
To see Gwen—whose physical constitution surpassed normal humans by a hundredfold—drained to such a frail state showed just how much crushing pressure she had been carrying on her shoulders.
"You've already done an amazing job."
Using the Horse Talisman to quietly purge the bone-deep fatigue from her body, Peter stroked her hair gently to soothe her:
"I've got the general picture now. If you hadn't been holding the fort—if Steve or Tony had been running the show—the situation would be ten times worse than it is right now."
"You've managed things to a degree that most people couldn't even dream of achieving. Sure, you're still a tiny bit short compared to your all-powerful boyfriend..."
He offered a warm, confident smile, cupping her cheek softly:
"...but obviously, losing to me, there's no need to feel inferior!"
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