After a small shake of his head, Peter polished off the final egg tart in his hand and got up to leave the dessert shop.
As for Felicia, Peter had decided to follow the ancestral master's classic playbook:
Don't take the initiative, don't refuse.
As for whether he'd take responsibility… that would depend on how far Felicia was willing to go on her own, and on when Gwen could accept the reality of gaining a few extra sisters.
Come to think of it, the "friendly-neighborhood" Peters in the multiverse seemed to treat Black Cat more or less the same way, didn't they?
They'd say, "We can't keep doing this," yet whenever Black Cat lifted their mask for an intimate moment, none of them ever actually pushed her away—every last one of them is brutally honest with their body!
Thinking like that, Peter figured he was actually a bit more aboveboard than those "good neighbors." At least he wouldn't freeze at the goal line and suddenly declare:
"No, I can't betray MJ again!"
Shaking off the jumble of thoughts, Peter set off for Island Park.
He planned to give William the good news—and, while he was at it, hire the taciturn man as Uncle Ben and Aunt May's personal bodyguard.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents were outsiders at the end of the day, and some of them might even be HYDRA snakes.
They could handle common thugs, but if a real super-villain showed up, it would still come down to Sandman.
In Island Park, Sandman was indeed keeping his daughter company.
At the moment he had turned his body into a huge sandcastle, letting his daughter slide down the spiral ramp and tumble into a soft pile of sand, her laughter ringing like silver bells.
Not far away, William's wife sat quietly, her weather-worn face brimming with happy contentment.
Her husband had come home, her daughter had recovered—for her, this was paradise on earth.
You had to admit, Sandman's wife was the very model of a devoted wife and mother.
When her husband was in prison and their daughter had a congenital illness, she hadn't run away.
Instead she'd chosen to live in hardship so her daughter could survive, waiting for her husband's return.
Even after Sandman revealed he'd become a "monster," she never abandoned him, never once urged him to use his powers for crime.
Her moral compass was practically unshakable.
Peter intended to recruit Sandman's wife into Parker Technologies as well—maybe as customer service or an assistant.
Or perhaps she could look after employees' children full-time.
Someone that upright, even if her skills were average, was reassuring to have around.
"Sir!"
William sensed Peter's arrival at once.
The massive sandcastle dissolved and re-formed into the silent, hulking man.
He hurried over with his wife, gratitude nearly spilling from his eyes.
Peter had cured his daughter the day before; that alone was worth his life.
"William, look at this."
As he spoke, Peter pulled out a New York state ID.
It bore William's photo, but the name read William Marco—a plausible alias.
"I had a covert agency wipe your records. Officially, William Baker is dead.
From now on, only William Marco, security consultant at Parker Technologies, exists."
Learning he could earn an honest living as a "normal" man and repay Peter by protecting his benefactor's family, the usually stoic man finally broke.
Voice hoarse, he swore:
"Sir, I promise: from this day on, anyone who wants to harm your family will have to step over my corpse first!"
William's wife knew what her husband's new identity meant; she covered her mouth, tears of joy streaming down her face.
From now on they could live openly in the sunlight, and their daughter could receive a proper education
instead of being stuck in some rough parochial school where she'd be bullied at every turn.
Realizing this, William's wife bowed again and again to Peter.
The devout Christian hurried to vow that she and her husband would devote their lives to Peter; if they ever broke that oath, may they be cast straight into hell.
Peter raised them up and stuffed every bill in his wallet into Mrs. Baker's hand, telling her to find a stable place for her daughter to stay.
Only then did he leave Island Park with William.
He still had time, and he wanted to confirm one more thing—Gwen's mention of The Prowler, Aaron Davis,
and the possible, or possibly non-existent, little black spider.
Following the address Gwen provided, Peter and Sandman quietly made their way to a Black neighborhood in Brooklyn.
What he saw there stunned him.
This World's "Prowler" turned out to be a mash-up of the movie and comic versions.
He had the movie name—Aaron Davis—but the backstory of the 616 original, Hobie Brown.
Incidentally, in Universe-138 Hobie Brown was the punk Spider-Man of *Into the Spider-Verse*; in this Universe Aaron Davis was ninth in his family, with one older brother and three older sisters.
As for where the rest of the siblings were… let's just say it's a sad story.
The current Prowler lived with his brother and sister-in-law.
His brother wasn't cop or crook, just a guy selling fried chicken from a cart.
From Peter's observation, Aaron Davis really had gone straight.
Under the Byakugan's gaze, the suit was locked deep in a closet and no enhancers were anywhere in the apartment.
That alone put him ahead of ninety-nine percent of the neighborhood.
While Peter and William watched, Aaron ate dinner with his brother and sister-in-law.
A tiny Black child of maybe four or five sat beside them—the only kid in the household.
The kid's tight curly crop made gender hard to tell, but clothes and how the family addressed her suggested she was a girl.
And her name… was Maynes!
Hearing it, Peter's mouth curved into a wild grin,
and a ridiculous thought flashed through his mind.
Turns out the "love rival" he'd agonized over was a gap-toothed little Black girl. The moment that sank in, a huge weight lifted from his chest.
Looks like this World wouldn't be getting a little black spider-girl.
As for whether a spider-kid from another dimension might show up… well, he'd better not. And if he does, he'd better not say anything weird in front of Gwen.
Otherwise Peter wouldn't mind adding another black mark to his tally.