Chapter 250: Hollywood Black-and-White Movies (Part 2)

"Bang!" The gunshot rang out, followed by the shattering of glass and a clerk's scream. Peter hurriedly shielded Gwen, pulling her into the corner of an alley. They saw several masked gunmen walking into a jewelry store at the far end of the street. Gwen covered her mouth and whispered, "Oh my god, call the police!"

"Wait..." Gwen tugged Peter, pointing over there and saying, "That clerk is hurt. He's been cut by glass shards and his artery is severed..."

With Peter's eyesight, he had naturally seen it long ago. The explosion just now had affected two clerks; one was clutching his neck, with a large amount of blood overflowing from his neck.

"He might not wait for the ambulance; he will die!" Gwen anxiously patted the wall. Peter put down his backpack and said, "Wait for me, Gwen."

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

Peter looked back at the scene there. Inside the jewelry store, the robbers were holding a detonator to blow up the jewelry counter. One clerk had also been shot while fleeing.

"I have to save people."

"But..."

Gwen couldn't hold Peter back. She saw that before Peter left, he wore a somewhat complex expression.

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

Gwen angrily punched the wall, but the chaos over there was getting worse. The crowd swept her outward. Just as Gwen turned her head, a figure swung between the high-rises—that was Spider-Man.

Gwen suddenly understood something, then opened her mouth wide, looking at the landing Spider-Man. She felt her arms trembling, but still tried her best to stretch out her hand and cover her mouth.

Running with the crowd into a farther alley, Gwen stopped her steps. She hesitated for a moment, then went against the flow of people, walking back in the direction she had come from.

Stopping beside a car, she saw Spider-Man punch one robber down, then roll on the spot to dodge a bullet. Gwen watched helplessly as that bullet grazed Spider-Man's body and flew past. In an instant, she felt her heart tighten.

Gwen struggled to cover her mouth with her trembling arms, preventing a scream from escaping. Spider-Man skillfully took down two robbers, but one of them ran back to the car, grabbed a more powerful semi-automatic weapon, and began firing at Spider-Man.

Spider-Man's reaction was incredibly fast. He jumped behind the counter, using it as cover, then shot a strand of webbing onto the face of the robber who was firing, blinding him. Immediately after, he jumped out and punched him down.

After knocking down all four robbers, Spider-Man walked over to the severely injured clerk and used webbing to seal his wound.

The sirens of police cars and ambulances blared simultaneously. When Peter walked into the middle of the road, he saw Gwen standing behind a car, looking at him.

Gwen's eyes were red-rimmed, but she stared straight at Spider-Man, as if trying to find some clue in him.

Peter stood in the middle of the road. Intense sunlight shone on him. He clenched his fist, as if making a decision that required considerable courage. Then, he sprinted on the spot, hugged Gwen, shot a web strand onto a high-rise building, and swung away.

Amidst the shimmering sunlight, Peter, holding Gwen, swung over the high-rises on Hollywood streets, like passing through a time-space tunnel, arriving at the sets of those fantasy blockbusters. Gwen's hair fluttered in the wind, and the people and cars on the road seemed infinitely small.

Spider-Man brought her to the rooftop of the tallest building. When the two landed, Gwen involuntarily stretched out her hand to touch Spider-Man's mask. Peter also extended a hand to cover Gwen's hand, then reached up to his own forehead and ripped off the mask.

The light froze, time stopped. Peter's hair strands danced in the sunlight, turning into golden threads, while the surrounding dust made the music play louder, just like in the grand adventures happening one after another in this city.

In the silent symphony, Peter, clad in his Spider-suit, tightly embraced Gwen.

Then, he kissed Gwen for the first time. In that dazzling heavenly light, amidst a field of pure white, the figures of the two were blended into the light.

The light passed through them, shining onto the shattered jewelry counter in this jewelry store robbery case. A sparkling gemstone lay on the ground, flashing with dazzling brilliance under the sunlight.

As the light dimmed, the gem's brilliant radiance turned into a mysterious and obscure faint glow. A whip flew over, its slender tip curling up the gem. Catwoman leaped onto a roof beam, then used the whip to hang upside down from the beam, watching Batman walk into the jewelry store.

She waved at Batman with a smile and said, "Bye-bye—"

Then she lifted her body, performed a graceful balance beam move, and started running along the roof beam. Finally, she jumped out the back door, with Batman chasing her closely behind.

Under a huge full moon, the city became a silhouette, and two tiny figures jumped between the high-rises.

Batman's cape swayed backward with the wind. The resistance coming from it was like a black hand grabbing him, hindering his advance.

The eyes beneath the mask stared tightly at that petite figure. Batman didn't know whether he was chasing a criminal or chasing... love?

But he became more and more immersed, with only that figure in his eyes. When he felt resistance coming from behind, he reached his hand backward, then ripped off his own cape, holding it in his hand.

When jumping down from the high-rise, Batman grabbed Catwoman, then used a grappling hook to catch the rooftop of the building on the other side. When they landed on the rooftop, the cape in Batman's hand snapped loudly in the wind.

After a deep kiss of ambiguous meaning ended, Catwoman embraced him, pressed her ear to his chest, and said, "Your heart is beating really fast."

"Yours too."

That wildness returned to Catwoman's brows, carrying a bit of mockery and madness. She touched Batman's face with her hand and said, "Do you think I would be immersed in such a dream?"

"Wearing a beautiful long dress, listening to your flattery, dancing and chatting with you. Batman, don't be silly. That's not us..."

The crazy gleam in her eyes made Batman even more fascinated. Catwoman's voice was simply like a devil's temptation. She said, "That kind of life is good, that kind of dream is truly beautiful, but that's not us..."

"... You're crazy." As Batman spoke, the resonance of his chest spread along Catwoman's fingertips. Catwoman moved closer to him and said, "If you were someone else, I wouldn't mind at all having such a dream. In the dream, I am a girl from a poor slum, and you are a wealthy tycoon..."

"You gave me everything: money, gems, love. You drowned me in the world's most luxurious jewelry, then held my hand. We danced, we kissed, then walked into a church, until we entered the grave..."

Catwoman pressed her finger against Batman's chest and said, "But that's too ordinary."

Catwoman looked into Batman's eyes and said, "I am crazy. I have such a life to live, yet I insist on being a thief."

"Batman, Batman... but if I weren't crazy..."

"... how lonely would you be?"

Catwoman clearly felt Batman's body stiffen. The look in his eyes as he gazed at her carried complex emotions, as if certain feelings suddenly surged forth.

"If you are a weirdo who likes to dress up as a bat, then I am a madman who wants to turn myself into a cat. We fit perfectly."

Catwoman loosened her arms holding Batman, detached herself from his embrace, stepped back a few paces, and said, "Otherwise, who do you think we are?"

"If we were acting like in the movies, right now I should tell you that no matter who you are, I love you, then encourage you, give you courage..."

"Then you would take off your mask, indicating that you are revealing your true identity to me, indicating that you are being honest with me, saying you love me, then kiss me."

"But we aren't filming a movie..."

Catwoman's eyes were neither sad nor disappointed; instead, they held a playful lightness. She said, "So I want to tell you: whether you are a bat or not doesn't matter; how many souls you have doesn't matter. I don't care."

"... Why?"

"Because we are both madmen, Batman... that way, neither of us is lonely."

Batman looked at her intently. The light in Catwoman's eyes fascinated him, almost making him lose reason, blocking the brain's alarm, ignoring the warning of intuition. This bat's low voice echoed between the two: "You are truly crazy..."

"... but so am I."

The response to him was a kiss, a kiss from a cat.

In such a pitch-black night, accompanied by a low and soothing nocturne, two madmen and monsters embraced each other, exchanging their absurd and twisted love.

Like an old black-and-white film, the purest white light and the purest black night from two universes embraced their lovers.

Their fates, absurd as a movie in each other's eyes, played out in turns above this city that had witnessed countless wonderful plots.

"Rebirth: The Great Era of Riding the Waves"

With a soft "click," the projector switched off. Shiller pulled out the old-fashioned videotape inside. Once the interwoven black-and-white light and shadow vanished, the friends from both eras were drowsing against the sofa, and only he alone was still awake.

The film from the previous era was not exciting enough — the plot was clichéd, the visuals crude, the techniques insufficiently wondrous, the scenes insufficiently grand — and halfway through, it made one drowsy.

But in the morning light and the evening glow, Shiller stood before the projector and carefully placed these two videotapes back into their different cases.

When the projector's "hum" of operation ceased, the room fell into complete silence, and Shiller's drowsiness welled up as well.

He walked to the window, where the alloy window frame and the wooden window lattice overlapped in the hazy light.

Seen from outside, only this one window had its light on, and the lone figure within the lamplight seemed somewhat forlorn.

Yet the flickering light and shadow behind him was bustling in a startling way, like a film woven from countless fates across two universes.

With a "click," the room's light went out. After the two universes bid each other goodnight, everything fell silent, awaiting the next opening.

------ Aside ------

Interlude 2260-0006, Card.

Interludes are a great place for messing around. Sure enough, compared to depth of field, I still prefer matte — matte and we're done.