Take Care of My Heart

Chapter 1 - Showdown

"No!" He shouted. Miles could already sense the defeat in her tone. "Don't you dare, Gwen!"

"These last few days with you... have been the best in my life." A sad smile formed on her face. "It was like a dream." Her eyes became wet. "You showed me what it truly meant to be a hero." Miles finally looked at her, his heart sinking. "I've tried my very hardest... not to fall for you... because I always knew it would end this way... but I can't help myself."

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DIE!" Miles' throat tensed with fear and anger. "WE ARE NOT GOING TO DIE! THAT IS NOT HOW OUR STORY WILL END!"

Tears began streaming from his own eyes, the cracks in his resolve laid bare. All the memories came flooding. He thought of his life with her, he thought of his friends and his parents. He couldn't afford to lose them. Not now. Not ever.

"I'm... not a mistake."

Just then, he seized up, a sharp pain coursing through his body as he glitched, and he remembered... ever since he returned from Earth 42, his molecules could no longer adjust to his own universe anymore, thanks to that spider. He was an anomaly.

He drops to his knees, Gwen catching him. He smiles humorlessly, unable to believe his bad luck. He was even wearing the watch that Hobie made, yet it couldn't help him in this case.

If the Spot didn't kill him, his unstable molecules would.

But in that moment, the shock had also lit a bulb in his head.

"That's it!" The collider... his venom powers... if the Spot was containing energy from all those colliders... he could absorb it from him. This realization caused him to light up like a Christmas tree.

"Miles?" Gwen took immediate notice of this sudden change. "What is it?"

"The collider!" With renewed energy, he shot up. "My venom can absorb his powers!" He then did a gleeful spin. "Why didn't I think of this before?"

"But how do you know it will work?"

Double taking between Gwen and the Spot, who was steadily approaching them, Miles seized her by the waist. "I'll explain later!"

"Where do you think you're going?" The Spot's voice boomed between the broken buildings.

Sensing their sudden eagerness to get away, the cosmic entity summoned numerous black holes to suck up some of the debris, and then proceeded to hurl them at the two heroes; the concrete projectiles fired through the air like bullets from a machine gun.

Miles only managed to swing up to the rooftops in time and wasted no time getting some distance away from the threat. Gwen had shifted onto his back, letting him carry her.

"You can't run away forever!" Bragged the Spot, his hands cupping where his mouth would have been. "Right... I have no mouth... you didn't see that!"

More deaths traps spawned around Miles, firing even more projectiles from all sides like a tomb from Indiana Jones. He dodged them all, taking extra care so that Gwen didn't get hit either.

*****

Soon enough, no more portals appeared, which hopefully meant that he got away... at least for the time being. They were back on the clock tower now.

Gwen, regaining some of her strength, climbed off Miles' back as he took of his mask.

"Are you oka-?"

Another searing glitch stopped his question. Gwen grabbed ahold of him to make sure he wouldn't fall off the ledge. Even when he caught his balance, she wouldn't let go of him. It was getting worse; even if they did manage to defeat the Spot, how were they then going to solve this problem? His destabilizing atoms will eventually cause irreparable damage.