"Wait a second, man! So you really haven't been Spider-Man for that long?!"
"And your methods are way too brutal. We only need to stop these criminals and hand them over to the police. There's no need to go that far, right...?"
Peter Porker had clearly latched onto the main point.
After all, he still had not forgotten how he had sneaked into the kitchen for a bacon roll because he was hungry, only to get beaten black and blue for it.
Wait.
A bacon roll?!
The moment that thought hit him, Porker's face turned green, and he immediately started dry-heaving.
"I'm saying, even if you don't like the way I do things, do you really have to stand there gagging in front of me just to disgust me? Do you know watching a pig retch is even worse than Mary Jane chasing me with a baseball bat?!"
Looking at Porker leaning against the couch and dry-heaving without actually throwing anything up, Peter frowned in disgust. This guy seriously had no manners.
"I... I just suddenly don't feel so good. I can't believe I actually ate a bacon roll. Oh God, I must've been starving out of my mind..." Porker said between heaves.
"You used to be a spider. Even if you're a pig now, eating pork shouldn't be that big a deal, right?"
"...You know, that actually makes sense."
After being a pig for so many years, he had nearly forgotten who he originally was.
It really was still Peter Porker.
Suddenly, all four Spider-People in the room triggered their spider-sense at the same time.
This was not the excited reaction from meeting another one of their own. This was the sharp jolt of danger closing in.
Sensing that something was wrong, Peter instantly calmed down and sharpened his hearing several times over. He could clearly hear chaotic footsteps outside.
"Looks like these idiots really don't know when to quit. Kill one batch, and another one shows up."
Peter shook his head helplessly, pulled his mask back on, didn't even bother greeting the others, and walked straight out of the house.
"Jimmy... damn it. Clean kill. How are we supposed to explain this to the boss..."
"That old lady definitely isn't the one who did it. I'm worried we'll spook whoever's really here if we move too carelessly..."
A few guys in punk jackets, some with nose rings, crouched in the bushes while watching the lit-up house and whispering to each other.
"Peter Parker's already dead. Taking out an old lady should've been easy."
"That's what I'm saying. Did some other superhero show up recently?"
"Who cares? Spider-Man's gone. Half of Queens belongs to Boss Kingpin now. Taking out one old lady should be easy."
"Oh? And who exactly are you planning to kill?"
The mohawk punk, who had been focused on watching the house, turned around impatiently and snapped, "Are you stupid? Obviously Peter Parker's... Spider-Man?!"
Standing right in front of him was a Spider-Man in an all-black suit with red eye lenses and eerie patterns across the costume. Both hands were resting casually on his shoulders.
"B-boss... AHHHH!"
Before he could finish, a scream even worse than a slaughterhouse cry tore out of his throat. The pain shooting through his shoulders dropped him flat to the ground, unable to get back up.
The other punks scattered at once. Some pulled out spiked clubs, some grabbed chain maces, and some slipped on brass knuckles.
"Your gear is pretty pathetic. Kingpin couldn't even spring for a gun?"
"You clown hiding behind a mask, don't think that makes you Spider-Man!"
The leader of the group snarled viciously.
"But I am Spider-Man."
Peter moved like lightning through the group. A few sharp sounds followed, and the punks dropped one after another before they could even scream.
Peter clapped his hands once and turned to leave, then suddenly paused and crouched back down.
"Almost missed one..."
A final sharp crack followed.
The first one he had taken down stiffened and went still, eyes wide open.
"No one gets to hurt Aunt May. No one."
"Hey, all these bodies... you did this?"
A young girl's voice came from behind him.
Peter slowly stood up, took off his mask, and nodded calmly.
The girl looked at the bodies on the ground. Some had no visible blood, some had their throats cut, some had been stabbed through the chest, and some had suffered far worse. Her stomach churned, and she looked at Peter with fear in her eyes.
No matter what, Peni was still only fourteen. Before this, she had never really known how cruel the world could be. She had never killed anyone, and she had barely even seen dead people before. The fact that she wasn't crying already was impressive enough.
"Hey, man, don't you think your methods are way too extreme?!"
Porker frowned as he looked at the bodies and started lecturing Peter again.
"It would've been enough to just stop them. There was no need to go this far..."
"First, they were here to kill Aunt May."
"Second, their boss is Kingpin. Even if they got thrown in prison, they'd be back out in no time."
"Third, I'm not incapable of mercy. It just depends on who deserves it. If someone harms the people around me, then sorry, I'll make them regret it."
Peter's tone was cold. Being lectured by a pig-headed Spider-Man did not feel especially pleasant.
"But that's not how a superhero acts!"
"Then it's a good thing I'm not a superhero! I never said I was one! Don't force your stupid, outdated ideas onto me!"
Peter stood firmly by his beliefs, refusing to be shaped by anyone else's standards.
"You're way too overbearing! Let me teach you a lesson!"
Porker shot a strand of webbing at Peter. Peter dodged it easily, then fired back a strand of his own, this one faintly tinted red.
Wrapped up like a dumpling in the reddish webbing, Porker kept yelling for a second, then realized his body no longer obeyed him. Even his mouth barely felt like his own.
"Peter, what did you do?!"
Mary Jane arrived just in time to see Porker tied up.
"Just simple paralyzing webbing. It'll numb him for a while, that's all."
"Everyone has their own way of fighting. I never asked you to be like me, so don't ask me to be like you. I told you already, I'm a lone wolf. I really was never meant to stay with a bunch of righteous Spider-People like you."
"Noir Peter, take care of Aunt May for me!"
As soon as Peter finished speaking, he leaped away, fired a web line, and vanished into the night.
"The second it involves someone he cares about, he turns into a completely different person..."
"Maybe he just doesn't want anyone important to him getting hurt..."
"That much, I can understand."
Noir Peter let out a quiet sigh and spoke to the others.
Mary Jane's expression was complicated as she looked in the direction Peter had disappeared.
"He's always been like that, always caring so much about the people around him. He feels like Peter... and yet not quite."
(End of Chapter)
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