Miles scrambled across the platform, plunging into an abandoned subway tunnel.
Everything that had happened today was just too weird.
Miles thought as he ran.
First, his clothes had inexplicably shrunk. Then his whole body had become sticky... not to mention his sudden, unnatural agility...
And then there was that bizarre spider that had bitten him last night.
All of it reminded Miles of the Spider-Man comic he kept in his collection.
Was it actually real?
Could he actually be turning into Spider-Man?
He was half terrified, half thrilled at the thought.
But if he wanted to prove his theory, he needed to find that spider first.
"I remember smacking it dead. It should still be there... Ah!"
Lost in thought, Miles completely failed to notice the massive sinkhole in the middle of the flat tunnel floor.
He pitched straight down, crashing into a claustrophobic space below.
"Where am I...?"
He rubbed his head and stood up, squinting in the gloom.
A split second later, a series of massive booms echoed in his ears.
Boom!!
Boom!!
Then, he saw a massive, green-skinned monster blast through a wall like a cannonball, sent flying out like a piece of trash.
Boom!!
"That's... the Green Goblin!"
Miles's eyes went wide. His body acted on honest fear, shrinking back as he ducked behind a crumbling wall to watch.
Sure, the Green Goblin was a classic villain in this world, but he should have been locked up in prison by Spider-Man ages ago. What was he doing here?
Miles wondered in confusion.
Then again, the Goblin looked far more terrifying than he did in the comics. With that demonic visage, it was hard to believe Spider-Man had actually managed to beat him!
As he was thinking, another tremendous bang rang out. Miles watched in shock as another green-skinned monster was smashed into the wall in a manner eerily similar to the Green Goblin.
Was that the Scorpion?!
Miles recognized the villain.
Boom!!
Immediately after, a black figure shot out like a phantom. Thrusting out a leg like a spear, they viciously snapped one of the Scorpion's limbs!
"Agh!!!"
The Scorpion's agonizing shrieks echoed through the empty underground. Miles slapped a hand over his mouth in sheer terror.
'Was that Spider-Man?'
'But how could Spider-Man...'
Fear had entirely blanked Miles's mind.
But right after, he heard the Green Goblin voice the exact same question in his own head.
The mountainous Green Goblin mercilessly shoved the Scorpion off him like a piece of garbage, then glared venomously at the dark figure.
"You're not Spider-Man. Who the hell are you?!"
'Not Spider-Man?'
Hidden in the shadows, Miles blinked, then cautiously raised his head to peer at the scene.
Only then did Miles realize that this Spider-Man was completely different from the one in his memory.
And it wasn't just the difference in their suits.
'That build?'
His enhanced vision allowed Miles to see clearly even in the dark, but what he saw only shocked him even more.
A female Spider-Man?
Staring at Gwen's sexy figure, Miles was completely dumbfounded.
Where the hell am I?
Is this still New York?
Miles had grown up in New York. He'd never been up close and personal with Spider-Man, but he had seen him swinging through the city skyline from a distance plenty of times.
He could safely assume Spider-Man's gender.
Male.
Unless...
Miles looked down at his own palms, which now harbored immense power.
'Unless... she was like him. Bitten by a different spider and gained superpowers.'
Miles thought.
The thought that someone else was going through the exact same thing calmed his restless nerves, just a little.
He sneaked another glance toward the center of the battlefield. Right at that moment, more enemies joined the fray.
An evil syndicate led by Kingpin stepped out from the shadows, completely surrounding the black-suited Spider-Man.
Seeing this, Miles couldn't help but worry for the female Spider-Man.
Part of him actually wanted to rush in and help, but his innate cowardice won out over his courage. His legs felt rooted to the floor; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't take a step forward.
Still not having transitioned from his ordinary life, he had the potential, sure, but he wasn't ready to shoulder the burden of a mission just yet.
After a brief, agonizing internal struggle, Miles just curled up and covered his head.
In reality, Bant and Gwen had sensed Miles's presence for a while now.
As a symbiote, the moment it bonded with Gwen, it had begun enhancing her abilities across the board.
Strength, stamina... and her Spider-Sense.
It was safe to say that Gwen was now powerful enough to be equivalent to having another Spider-Man's powers stacked on top of her own.
And not just any Spider-Man, but one of the strongest.
However, both Bant and Gwen were still growing. Neither of their abilities had reached their absolute limits yet.
Neither of them paid Miles any mind.
It was actually better that Miles stayed hidden. An inexperienced kid would be of no use and would only get in the way.
Since he was this universe's Spider-Man, the blonde Peter would personally train him once this was over.
By then, Peter would be able to take a breather and leave the city in Miles's hands.
As for right now...
Gwen swept her gaze over the area. The enhanced powers gave her a feeling of floating on air; looking at these so-called super-villains, she found herself feeling completely nonchalant.
On top of that, a symbiote influences its host's personality. Right now, Gwen was starting to take on Bant's temperament, and her strikes were becoming noticeably more ruthless.
The kick that had just shattered the Scorpion's bone was proof enough of that.
Of course, if Bant had been the one doing it, he would have just cleanly killed the Scorpion.
They were all unrepentant, old-school villains anyway.
Peter had been fighting them for years. He'd lost count of how many times he'd thrown them behind bars, but it never changed anything in the end.
"No killing!"
Gwen said to Bant in her mind.
She had discovered that she could communicate with the symbiote Bant through her thoughts.
Not killing was her bottom line.
It was the choice most Spider-Men made, too.
Bant indicated that she was the test driver, so she called the shots.
"I don't care who you are. If you stand in my way, you die!" A savage light burst from Kingpin's beady eyes.
The Kingpin of this universe was even more exaggeratedly huge than the one in Bant's universe.
His strength was significantly greater, too.
With a frame like a colossal block of rock, he truly stood shoulder-to-shoulder with those super-villains as a mere mortal.
Then again, if this universe's Kingpin wasn't strong enough, there was no way Norman Osborn would ever follow his orders.
"Attack!"
At Kingpin's command, the slender cane in his hand shot out like an arrow.
Whoosh!
Gwen tilted her head slightly, effortlessly dodging the strike.
But immediately after, the rest of the villains' attacks came one after another.
The Prowler was the fastest. The sharp armor on his arms tore through the air, lunging straight for Gwen!
Gwen bent backward into a perfect backbend, narrowly dodging the Prowler's claws.
In reality, though, "narrowly" was only for show.
That single millimeter of distance was entirely the result of Gwen's precise control of the fight.
Following the momentum, she snapped her leg upward. Her seemingly slender leg was tougher than steel rebar; a single kick completely shattered the Prowler's armor!
Bam!!
The Prowler was sent flying, crashing deep into a wall.
Even though Bant knew the man was Miles's uncle, he had no intention of telling Gwen.
Gwen wouldn't deal a lethal blow anyway. And Aaron Davis being Miles's uncle didn't change the fact that he worked for Kingpin and was a crook.
But most importantly—
'He's not my uncle. Why should I give a damn?'
Bant thought to himself.
By this time, Gwen had already swung a back elbow, slamming it right into the waist of the Rhino, who had been trying to sneak up on her.
Eat my kidney-elbow!
Thud!
A dull thud echoed.
The strike instantly made the Rhino's eyes roll back in his head.
His rock-like, rhino-hide skin was as fragile as tofu against the empowered Gwen.
So strong!
On the sidelines, the blonde Peter watched Gwen show off her skills from the shadows, genuinely impressed.
According to their original plan, Gwen and Bant would handle all the enemies while he confirmed how many universes were entangled in this collider crisis. Then, once the collision ended, he would shut down and destroy the machine.
But in Peter's eyes, Bant and Gwen were still just kids. Naturally, he was a bit worried.
He had survived his own high school days. Because of that, Peter knew perfectly well that a high school Spider-Man hadn't yet reached their absolute peak.
Even now, facing the assembled Sinister Six, Peter would have had a very hard time fighting them off.
This universe's Green Goblin was barely weaker than him in terms of raw strength.
So he had secretly stayed behind to observe for a while, ready to jump in immediately if anything went wrong.
But Gwen's combat prowess had genuinely exceeded his expectations.
To be precise, Bant—having transformed into the symbiote suit—was far stronger than he could have ever imagined.
Enemies that used to be incredibly difficult to deal with were reduced to oversized infants in Bant's hands, effortlessly toyed with by Nightmare Gwen.
Too strong!
Peter marveled once again.
With such immense power, it was no wonder Bant had been able to save everyone from tragedy and become a winner that even Peter envied.
'She's a bit ruthless, but I guess that's a common Venom trait.'
Peter thought.
He had really only encountered two symbiotes before: Venom and Carnage.
His impressions of both were pretty terrible, so he subconsciously assumed brutality was a universal trait for symbiotes, rather than Bant just being ruthless on his own.
Seeing that Gwen had already started kicking Kingpin around like a soccer ball, Peter finally relaxed completely.
Let her kick him all she wants, as long as he didn't die.
These villains all had superhuman healing anyway. They'd outlive him, the main character, at this rate. Even if they lost a limb, they'd just pop back up a while later.
Probably with some shiny new tech, to boot.
Just thinking about it gave Peter a headache.
He turned and sprinted toward the particle collider's control room.
Without Kingpin, only two ordinary researchers were left inside.
When Peter ripped the metal door off its hinges and charged in, the two men instantly fainted from sheer terror. That saved him a bit of trouble.
"Let's see... a total of six universes are linked..."
Peter plugged the USB drive containing the kill-switch program into the computer, leaned close to the screen, and his hands flew across the keyboard.
"Wait... spacetime is collapsing!"
Peter quickly realized something was wrong.
It was obvious that the collider's technology wasn't fully mature yet. Kingpin was just too crazy; starting the device at all costs had already pushed the machine into a critical overload state.
If it blew, the entire borough of Brooklyn would be swallowed and shredded by spacetime rifts!
"If it were just me, unless I physically climbed into that giant machine to disable it manually, I don't think there'd be any other way."
Peter looked up at the kaleidoscopic void between the collider's beams. The constantly collapsing and twisting space radiated pure destructive power.
If it could tear through the barriers of the multiverse, one could only imagine how dangerous it would be to venture inside.
Once caught in that energy, even his superhuman body would struggle to withstand it.
Fortunately...
"Thank God for Bant."
He moved the mouse and double-clicked the program Bant had prepared in advance.
With this, he could execute all the necessary operations right from the control room.
"It might cause a temporary earthquake and a blackout across Brooklyn, but it's the safest option we have right now."
"I owe Bant one. The guy's a genius!"
Clack!
Peter slammed his finger down on the Enter key.
Gwen brought down a clenched fist.
Bam!!!
Instantly, the Green Goblin's broad, wall-like chest caved in like a crushed soda can.
Boom!!
Immediately after, a tidal wave of colorful pixels surged up from the ground beneath their feet, spreading out across all of Brooklyn accompanied by a violent tremor.
Bzzzt—
It sounded like the static noise of an old TV buzzing in his ears.
As the spacetime wave passed through his body, Miles felt his very being warp for a split second, though he didn't know why.
For a brief moment, it felt like he had been peeled away from this universe entirely.
He gritted his teeth. "What's happening?"
It was Kingpin's question, too.
The only reason Kingpin—who now had a face like ground beef—could still stand was because Gwen had fully embraced Bant's personality and was simply toying with them.
The old Gwen would have been talking nonstop during the fight.
Well, she actually still was, but...
Rather than chat with a meathead like Kingpin, Gwen naturally preferred talking to Bant.
"Looks like Peter pulled it off."
Gwen's tone wasn't exactly joyful. If anything, there was a faint hint of melancholy.
"The Collider?!" Kingpin quickly realized that something had gone wrong with his machine.
"What did you do?!"
He roared at Gwen furiously.
But Gwen wasn't about to coddle him.
"Shut up!"
The thought of having to say goodbye soon had already soured her mood. Having this meathead screaming in her face only made it worse.
Losing all interest in playing around, Gwen leaped up and delivered a flying kick that embedded Kingpin squarely into the wall. The kind of impact you couldn't pry him out of with a crowbar.
As for the other villains, she had already punched them half to death, knocking them out like lightweights.
The Sinister Six?
A Spider-Man getting serious just one-shot them all!
Such a powerful, brutal Spider-Woman terrified the hiding Miles so much that he didn't even dare to peek out.
She was terrifying!
/-\
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