Hollywood Black-and-White Film (Part 2)

A gunshot rang out with a bang, followed by the sound of shattering glass and a clerk’s scream. Peter hurriedly shielded Gwen and ducked around the corner of an alley. At the other end of the street, several masked gunmen were entering a jewelry store. Gwen covered her mouth and whispered, "Oh my God, call the police!"

"Wait…" Gwen tugged on Peter and pointed over there. "That clerk is hurt. Glass shards cut an artery…"

With Peter’s eyesight, he had naturally noticed long ago. The explosion had caught two clerks; one of them was clutching his neck as blood poured from it.

"He might not make it until the ambulance arrives. He’ll die!" Gwen anxiously slapped the wall. Peter set down his backpack and said, "Wait here, Gwen."

"Wait! What are you going to do?" Gwen grabbed Peter. "They have guns and bombs. Are you crazy?"

Peter looked back at the scene. Inside the jewelry store, the robbers were using detonators to blow open the jewelry counters. Another clerk had been shot while trying to escape.

"I have to save them."

"But…"

Gwen failed to hold Peter back. Before he left, she saw a complicated expression cross his face.

She watched Peter run toward the end of the alley, then disappear from her sight.

Gwen angrily punched the wall, but the chaos over there was growing worse. The crowd swept her along as it fled, and just as Gwen turned her head, a figure swung between the skyscrapers—Spider-Man.

Gwen suddenly understood. Her mouth fell open as she stared at Spider-Man landing nearby. Her arms trembled, but she still did her best to cover her mouth.

After running with the crowd into a farther alley, Gwen stopped. She hesitated, then went back against the flow of people toward where she had come from.

Stopping beside a car, she saw Spider-Man knock out a robber with one punch, then roll aside to evade a bullet. Gwen watched helplessly as the bullet grazed Spider-Man’s body, and in that instant, her heart clenched.

Gwen desperately covered her mouth with trembling hands to keep herself from screaming. Spider-Man skillfully took down two robbers, but one of them ran back to the car and pulled out a more powerful semiautomatic weapon, beginning to fire a burst at Spider-Man.

Spider-Man reacted with incredible speed. He leaped behind a counter and used it for cover, then shot a web straight onto the gunman’s face, blinding him. He immediately sprang out again and knocked him down with a punch.

After taking down all four robbers, Spider-Man walked over to the seriously injured clerk and used webbing to seal his wounds.

The sirens of police cars and ambulances sounded at the same time. As Peter stepped into the middle of the road, he saw Gwen standing behind a car, looking at him.

Gwen’s eyes were red, but she stared directly at Spider-Man, as though trying to find some clue on him.

Peter stood in the middle of the street, harsh sunlight shining over him. He clenched his fists, as though making a decision that took tremendous courage. Then he sprinted forward, grabbed Gwen, fired a web at a skyscraper, and swung away.

Amid the dazzling sunlight, Peter carried Gwen as he swung past the towering buildings along Hollywood’s streets. It was like passing through a tunnel of Spacetime and arriving on the set of some fantastical blockbuster. Gwen’s hair streamed in the wind, while the people and cars below looked impossibly small.

Spider-Man brought her to the roof of the tallest building. When they landed, Gwen involuntarily reached out to touch Spider-Man’s mask. Peter reached out with One Hand to cover hers, then lifted it to his forehead and tore off his mask.

The light froze, and time stood still. Peter’s hair fluttered in the sunlight, turning into golden threads, while the fine dust around them made the music play louder, just as it had in one magnificent adventure after another in this city.

Within the silent symphony, Peter, dressed in his Spider-Man suit, held Gwen tightly.

Then, for the first time, he kissed Gwen. Beneath that dazzling sky, amid a pure white expanse, their figures melted into the light.

The light passed through them and fell upon the smashed jewelry counter from the robbery. A glittering gemstone dropped to the floor, flashing with breathtaking brilliance in the sunlight.

As the light dimmed, the gemstone’s splendid radiance became a mysterious, subdued glow. A whip lashed through the air, its slender tip curling around the gem. Catwoman leaped onto a beam, hooked the whip around it, and hung upside down as she watched Batman enter the jewelry store.

She smiled and waved at Batman. "Bye-bye—"

Then she swung herself up, performed a graceful balancing-beam maneuver, and ran along the beam before finally leaping out through the back door. Batman followed closely behind her.

Under an enormous full moon, the city became a silhouette, and two tiny figures leaped between the skyscrapers.

Batman’s cloak streamed backward in the wind. The resistance dragging against it was like a pitch-black hand clutching him, holding him back.

Behind the mask, his eyes remained fixed on that petite figure. Even Batman did not know whether he was chasing a criminal or chasing… love.

Yet he became increasingly absorbed, until his eyes held only that figure. When he felt the resistance behind him, he reached back, tore off his cloak, and gripped it in his hand.

As he leaped from a skyscraper, Batman wrapped Catwoman in his arms and fired his grappling hook at the rooftop of the building opposite them. When they landed, the cloak in Batman’s hand snapped violently in the wind.

After a deep kiss whose meaning was impossible to tell, Catwoman embraced him and pressed her ear to his chest. "Your heart is beating so fast."

"Yours too."

That wildness returned to Catwoman’s features, tinged with teasing and madness. She stroked Batman’s face and said, "Did you think I would lose myself in a Dream like that?"

"Wearing a beautiful gown, listening to your compliments, dancing and chatting with you… Batman, don’t be stupid. That isn’t us…"

The crazed gleam in her eyes captivated Batman even more. Catwoman’s voice was practically a devil’s temptation as she said, "That life would be nice. That Dream would be beautiful. But that isn’t us…"

"…You’re crazy." As Batman spoke, the vibration in his chest traveled along Catwoman’s fingertips. She pressed closer to him and said, "If you were anyone else, I wouldn’t mind having a Dream like that at all. In that Dream, I’d be a poor girl from the Slums, and you’d be a wealthy magnate…"

"You would give me everything—money, jewels, love. You would drown me in the most luxurious gems in the world, then take my hand. We would dance, kiss, walk into a church, and remain together until we entered our graves…"

Catwoman pressed a finger against Batman’s chest. "But that’s too ordinary."

Looking into Batman’s eyes, Catwoman said, "I’m crazy. Instead of living that kind of life, I insist on becoming a thief."

"Batman, Batman… but if I weren’t crazy…"

"…How lonely would you be?"

Catwoman clearly felt Batman’s body stiffen. His gaze held complicated emotions, as though certain feelings had suddenly surged forth.

"If you’re a weirdo who likes dressing up as a bat, then I’m a lunatic who wants to turn herself into a cat. We’re perfectly matched."

Catwoman released Batman and slipped out of his embrace. Taking several steps back, she said, "Otherwise, who do you think we are?"

"If this were like a movie, I should tell you now that no matter who you are, I love you. Then I should encourage you and give you courage…"

"Then you would take off your mask, showing that you were revealing your true identity to me, showing that you trusted me. You would say you loved me, and then kiss me."

"But we’re not making a movie…"

Catwoman’s gaze held neither sorrow nor disappointment. Instead, it carried a playful ease. "So let me tell you this: it doesn’t matter whether you’re a bat or not. It doesn’t matter how many souls you have. I don’t care."

"…Why?"

"Because we’re both crazy, Batman… That means neither of us is alone."

Batman gazed at her intently. The light in Catwoman’s eyes bewitched him, nearly driving him senseless. Ignoring every alarm in his mind and every warning from his instincts, the bat’s low voice echoed between them. "You really are crazy…"

"…But so am I."

His answer was a kiss—a kiss from a cat.

On such a Darkest Night, accompanied by a low, gentle nocturne, two lunatics and monsters embraced, exchanging their absurd and twisted love.

Like an old film where black and white intertwined, the purest white light and the Darkest Night from two universes embraced their lovers.

Their Destinies seemed as absurd as a movie to one another, playing out in turn above this city that had witnessed countless wonderful stories.

With a click, the projector shut off. Schiller pulled out the old videotape inside. After the intertwined black-and-white shadows vanished, the friends from both Spacetimes were all slumped sleepily against the sofa. Only he remained awake.

The film from a bygone era was not exciting enough. Its plot was clichéd, its images crude, its techniques insufficiently fantastical, and its scenes not grand enough. Halfway through, it had already made everyone drowsy.

Yet in the morning light and the setting sun, Schiller stood before the projector, carefully putting the two videotapes back into separate cases.

Once the projector’s humming stopped, the room fell completely silent, and Schiller’s drowsiness came flooding in as well.

He walked to the window. In the hazy light, the alloy window frame overlapped with the wooden lattice.

From outside, only this one window was lit. The figure in the light stood alone, seeming somewhat lonely.

Yet the flickering light and shadows behind him were astonishingly lively, like a movie woven from the countless intertwined Destinies of two universes.

With a click, the lights in the room went out. After the two universes bid each other good night, everything fell silent, waiting for the next opening.

Interlude 2260-0006, cut.

Interludes were the perfect place to mess around. Sure enough, compared to depth of field, I still preferred blur. Just blur it and be done with it.