Spider and Bat (Part 2)

At the Parker house, in Peter’s room, Peter clung tightly to the doorframe and said, "Let go of me! This is my body! I can use it however I want! I’m going out on a date with Gwen…"

Then he glanced up at the clock and said, "Come on! It’s already ten o’clock. We’re supposed to meet by the river at ten-thirty. If I hurry, I can still make it. I can’t stand her up. She went through something so dangerous yesterday. She must really need someone to comfort her…"

"But you haven’t even finished a proper battle plan!! You’ve been dawdling for three hours!! You’ve only written a third of it!! You have to finish it before you go have fun!!"

"Are you insane?! Not even schoolteachers make anyone do homework for three hours straight!! I’m leaving now! Let go of me!"

Peter’s arm loosened and tightened repeatedly, as though he were playing tug-of-war with himself. Finally, Venom roared, "You’re already sixteen! You’ll be eighteen in two years! The eighteen-year-old humans I’ve seen were far more diligent and self-disciplined than you!"

"You’re lying! My upperclassmen are all just like me. We’re the normal ones! What high schooler stays cooped up in their room doing homework?? Let me go! I’m really going to be late!"

Twenty minutes later, Peter landed on a rooftop and warned Venom in his mind, "When Gwen and I are on our date, you’re not allowed to peek."

"Have you ever even held her hand?" Venom asked.

"Of course we have. We’ve held hands…"

"So that’s all you’ve done, right?"

Peter’s face reddened slightly. He said, "So what? We’ve only been together for a few months. We haven’t even gone on a hundred dates yet…"

A while later, at a café by the river, Gwen had already ordered two coffees. She was delighted when she saw Peter, and Peter ran over excitedly. "Sorry, I’m a little late today. There was… a bit of traffic."

"It’s okay. I got here too early. I already ordered the coffee. Let’s sit over there."

Peter had just taken the coffee cup when he suddenly lost control of his body. He spread his arms and hugged Gwen tightly. Gwen startled, and Peter grimaced as he released her. "Oh, sorry! I… I just…"

Then he saw tears suddenly glimmering in Gwen’s eyes. Gwen said, "Did you see the paper? Did you see what happened on the street next to the school yesterday?"

Peter had been there at the time, so of course he knew. He said, "Ah… yes. I saw that you were there too…"

Before Peter could say anything else, Gwen’s eyes reddened as she said, "You have no idea how dangerous it was yesterday. I watched a young police officer die right in front of me. Oh my God, I just can’t accept it…"

"Hold her."

"You’re going too far. How can you control me…"

"Listen to me. Hold her."

Peter once again felt his body slip out of his control. He hugged Gwen tightly, and Gwen hugged him back and began to cry. Before long, her whole body was trembling from sobs, and Peter could only stroke her back.

After a long while, Gwen finally calmed down. She wiped away her tears with a napkin and said, "I’m really sorry. I couldn’t control myself, but…"

She choked up again and said, "My dad is already under so much pressure. I don’t even dare show that I’m scared, because I’m afraid he’ll worry about me. If he gets distracted while he’s working, then he might be the one who gets killed…"

Seeing the sorrow and worry on Gwen’s face, Peter felt terrible too. He could barely speak. Then his arm rose out of his control again and took hold of the hand Gwen was using to hold her coffee. Venom said in Peter’s mind, "Aren’t you going to say something?"

"What am I supposed to say? I… this is, this is too abrupt…"

"You’re the biggest cowardly human I’ve ever seen."

In the end, Peter gathered his courage and looked into Gwen’s eyes. "Don’t worry. Actually, I’ve always been with you…"

The moment he said it, he pulled his hand back as though he had been burned, then picked up his coffee and took a sip.

Gwen looked at his slightly flushed face and suddenly laughed through her tears. "You really are a little different today."

Peter complained in his mind, It’s all your fault. Gwen is definitely going to think I’m being rude.

Then he heard Gwen say, "But I actually think it’s pretty nice. You used to be a little too shy. I never thought you could be this proactive…"

Peter’s face turned even redder. He stammered, "It… it’s nothing. It’s only right…"

"You’re beyond saving." Venom’s voice rang out in his mind again.

Gwen giggled so hard that she nearly choked on her coffee. She seemed to really enjoy seeing Peter so shy and embarrassed.

"Let’s go see a movie later. We can go to the theater we always visit. I have a coupon for a large bucket of cheese balls, so we can use it."

After the two of them left the café, Peter said to Gwen, "Sorry, wait for me a second. I’m going to the convenience store."

He ran into the nearest convenience store, went to the shelves, picked up a bag of chocolate balls, and paid for it.

Gwen saw him walk out of the store and looked at the bag of chocolate balls in his hand. "Why did you suddenly buy those? I don’t remember you liking chocolate."

Peter tore open the package, took one out, and handed it to Gwen. He shrugged. "I just thought sweets might make you feel a little better."

Gwen was very happy. She rested a hand on Peter’s shoulder and said, "It looks like you really have changed a lot. My friends used to say you had no idea how to make a girl happy, but now it seems you’re not bad at all."

Peter blushed again. Then he took one out as well, peeled off the wrapper, and put it in his mouth.

"Oh, shit, why does this taste so awful?" Venom’s voice rang out.

"Then why did you make me buy it?"

Peter chewed and said, "I think it’s pretty good. Doesn’t all chocolate taste like this?"

"You uncultured brat. This chocolate tastes far worse than I expected. Sure enough, cheap things are never good," Venom said.

When they reached the theater, Peter accepted a bucket of cheese balls nearly half his height from the clerk. Gwen said apologetically, "I didn’t realize it would be this big when I bought it. It didn’t look like this much in the picture…"

Peter struggled a little as he held the huge bucket. "It’s okay. You know I’ve been eating a lot more lately. I think we can finish it."

When the movie began, they chose seats in the middle near the back. Peter wedged the huge bucket of cheese balls between the armrest and the back of the seat in front of them, right between the two of them, where either of them could reach it easily.

After the movie started, they ate cheese balls and drank cola while quietly discussing the plot.

Just as Gwen reached for a cheese ball, she saw a black tentacle quickly sweep seven or eight cheese balls out of the bucket. She rubbed her eyes and cried out, "What was that???"

"What?" Peter turned to look at her. When Gwen looked back, the tentacle had already vanished. There were so many cheese balls that she could not tell whether any were missing. Gwen blinked and said, "Nothing. Maybe I was hallucinating."

Then Peter heard Venom complaining in his mind, "This isn’t good either. It has that cheap, processed snack-food taste."

"Why are you so picky?" Peter said. "Isn’t it pretty good?" As he spoke, he grabbed five or six cheese balls and tossed them into his mouth.

When the movie ended, Gwen looked at the now-empty bucket and opened her mouth. "I know you’ve been eating a lot more lately, but isn’t this a little ridiculous? This was a ten-person serving of cheese balls!"

Inside Peter’s mind, Venom let out a satisfied belch. "It wasn’t very tasty, but it was filling."

After walking Gwen home, Venom saw that Peter still intended to wander around outside and said, "Can you go back and finish that damned battle plan?"

"Oh, God! Give me a break! I don’t need any battle plan!" Peter crouched on a rooftop, took his Spider-Man suit out of his backpack, and put it on. "We’ll just wear this, go smash that hideout, and that’ll be that. It’s simple."

"You’re going to get beaten badly," Venom said.

Half an hour later, Peter was scrambling through an alley with his hands over his head. A mass of black mist wrapped around him again, slowing his movements. Then a pair of claws slashed toward his back. A mass of black Slime blocked the attack, and Peter spun around and threw a punch, but his opponent instantly teleported away.

Before he could turn around, another vampire teleported in front of him and swiped at him with its claws. Peter ducked, but another bat had already swooped down at him.

"Damn it, I walked right into a trap. They’ve been waiting for me here the whole time." Peter looked around. At least four or five high-ranking vampires had surrounded him.

These opponents happened to counter Peter perfectly. Peter was strong, and he had Spider-Sense, but he had no good way to deal with magic.

His fists might be powerful, but that meant nothing if he could not hit anyone. He might be fast, but he did not have wings. Once they turned into bats and flew high up, he could not catch them anytime soon.

In contrast, the vampires could harass him in turns. One took charge of the main assault while the others interfered from the sides, severely slowing Peter down.

"Listen, if you can’t solve this problem within ten minutes, I’m stepping in," Venom said.

"Stepping in? You can fight too? Then why can’t you do it now? Can’t you just…" Peter rolled across the ground again, dodging another attack as he shouted, "…help me right now?!"

"This is the consequence of not making a battle plan!!! And do you think I don’t want to? Do you know how much of a commotion I’d cause?"

As they spoke, the high-ranking vampires seemed to decide they no longer wanted to harass him like this. They drove Peter into a dead end and attacked from all directions. Before long, several slashes had appeared on his suit. If he took a few more hits, it would probably tear.

Venom said, "All right, now empty your mind. I’m going to make my move…"

At that moment, gunfire rang out. One of the high-ranking vampires let out a scream, with wisps of black smoke rising from its body. A Black man in a leather jacket and eyepatch vaulted over the wall surrounding the alley.

He slashed another vampire across the shoulder. Black smoke rose where the blade touched its flesh. That vampire tried to turn into a bat and escape, but another slash directly severed its wings. It fell to the ground and flapped twice before a silver stake was driven through its heart.

The man was called Blade. He was a half-vampire and also a Vampire Hunter. He had been tracking this group of high-ranking vampires for several months. Today, they had gathered together, making it the perfect chance to wipe them out in one stroke.

Blade’s prediction had been correct. In just a few exchanges, he killed one vampire and wounded another. But he had been so focused on fighting the vampires that he had not noticed the person they had surrounded. When he came back to his senses, black Slime erupted from the crowd, and a figure shot into the air.

Amid an enormous mass of black Slime, a gigantic monster with wings growing from its back appeared in midair. A bat emblem was exposed on its chest.

Blade looked up and saw a massive black bat with a wingspan of more than ten meters, nearly blocking out the sky, appear above New York.

Today’s ten thousand words are here!

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