Issue 9: Shock Therapy
Manhattan, On top of a standard rooftop
"…And yeah, that's the situation." Spider-Man said, as he and Cinder have just finished explaining everything that has happened recently involving their battle with Venom and Salem, the G-Symbiotes, and what's at stake to their remaining allies in New York: Luke Cage, Moon Knight, llia, Wolverine, Raven, Qrow, and for some reason Vulture, contacting all except the old bird through his Webware, creating holographic projections of his friends so they could directly talk to him as if they are standing with him.
"Well this is a fine mess we've got ourselves into." Luke Cage said sarcastically.
"I'll say." Wolverine agreed with the man.
"The symbiotes were dangerous before, but these G-Symbiotes are on a whole different world altogether. The combined, malevolent fusion of Grimm and Symbiotes have transformed them into an unstoppable force where fires and sonics only keep them stun, not hurt them like usual." Moon Knight said during the discussion.
"And are you sure Salem is completely subverted to their control?" Qrow asked the webhead.
"Qrow, I have super-spider powers and the soul of a Spider-God living inside me and I could barely keep this thing under control. I doubt Salem is having a better time than I am." Spider-Man replied to the Huntsman.
"That's nuts." Llia responded.
"Hmph. Serves her right. Trying to play with power she couldn't understand." Raven said, a bit happy inside that Salem is now having the taste of her own medicine.
"Salem was dangerous enough before, but with the symbiotes controlling her, there's no telling what she's capable of now." Qrow said, thinking their job has gotten a whole lot tougher.
"It's my fault things got this bad in the first place." Cinder said depressingly, feeling really guilty about having a hand in starting this mess in the first place.
"It's alright, child. We all make mistakes every now and then." Vulture said while standing next to Peter and Cinder.
"Why are you here again?" Spider-Man asked his feathered foe on his strange and sudden appearance.
"You don't really think the police could hold me forever when the city's falling apart thanks to these creatures. For now, I will lend my aid in stopping them from destroying mankind." Vulture said to the bug.
"Thanks, old timer, but try something funny, I'll personally see the symbiotes have some fresh chicken to eat." Spider-Man said to Vulture with a threat.
"So what's the plan, kid?" Wolverine asked the arachnid hero.
"According to Cinder, Venom has spawned symbiote pods all throughout Manhattan, forcing people in and turning them into symbiotes. We don't know how many, and I'm still in the dumps on we stop it, but the least we could do is destroy as many as we can until we could bring the fight to Salem. I'm actually pretty excited to having another go with that old crone." Spider-Man told the remaining heroes of New York the plan to stop this infection.
"E-Excited? You're actually looking forward to fighting that witch again?" Raven asked dumbfounded from his response.
"Of course. Our first match she caught me off-guard, but next time I'll be ready to knock her white skin off." Spider-Man responded.
Raven sighed but then let's out a small smile for his act of bravery and fearlessness against Salem, a trait she could never inherit if she tried. "You're an idiot you know that?"
"Does that really need to be answered?" Cinder asked the bird lady.
"Okay. We have a plan. I'll contact Ozpin and inform him of the situation. I doubt he'll be too happy when he hears his favorite nemesis is having fun time on another world without him." Qrow said to the team.
"Good, but I STRONGLY recommend no inter-dimensional travel until this epidemic is sorted out. We don't want to risk other dimensions getting infected by this disease." Spider-Man strongly advised everyone to do. "Symbiotes are extremely tricky and hard to keep track of. Just a small speck of them could devastate an entire civilization with little effort. This is our universe's mess, and it's our job to clean it up."
"Completely understandable." Qrow agreed with Peter's statement.
"So it's up to us to stop this disease from spreading outside the city. I'm cool with that." Luke Cage said.
"Luke, I have a favor. Could you go to the Harlem Hospital and meet with my friend Mary Jane Watson? Keep her safe for me?" Spider-Man asked the Hero-for-Hire to protect Mary Jane while he's busy taking on the symbiotes.
"Sure thing, little dude." Luke replied.
"Thanks, Luke." Spidey said.
"We should start moving and take care of those hives. This city is becoming more corrupt by them if we don't do something about it." Moon Knight said to the team.
"Agreed. Good luck everyone." Spider-Man said. Everyone turned off their comms to begin the mission while Vulture flies away to aid them, leaving just Spidey and Cinder all by themselves on the rooftop. "Come on we should move." He said as he starts walking with Cinder, but then notices something he was too busy to spot during the small crisis earlier with Salem and Venom. "I've just noticed, but your eye seems to have healed. How?" The wall-crawler asked, pointing to Cinder's repaired eye, originally scarred for life during her near-death experience with the Green Goblin.
"I don't know. After my fight with Carnage it was all better." Cinder answered, surprising the heck out of Peter that she fought the serial killer and lived.
"You fought Carnage and survived?! I'm surprised you didn't lose the other eye! I always had a tough time fighting that maniac, and that's with Venom's help!" Spider-Man exclaimed.
Cinder chuckled, "Well, it'll take a lot more than a mass serial killer to take me down…" She puts her hand underneath her chin. "But he was acting strangely when we fought. Said something about giving birth." She said this before pondering the words Carnage sprouted out, especially his brief conversation with Venom before the father knocked the son out of the forest.
"Ah, don't bother thinking too hard about what that lunatic says. Every word that comes out of his mouth is filled with the voice of crazy." Spider-Man told her to stop thinking about Carnage.
"Hmm, maybe your right. Anyways, I suggest we should find more of those symbiote pods." Cinder said, dropping the subject involving Carnage and 'birth'.
"Let's go, best buddy." Spidey teased her before gleefully leaping from the rooftop.
Cinder, however, is less than amused by the new nickname. "I'm hating this partnership already." She said before chasing after Spidey.
The crimson web duo's first symbiote hive to crush is located near the docks leading to the river, where they spot the black pod using its monstrous tongue to pull in nearby civilians into its mouth and spitting them out as Snatchers or transformed Symbiote Grimm.
"Hey look, Cindy, people popcorn." Spidey joked as they arrived at the scene.
"What is he on?" Cinder asked herself, trying her best to comprehend how stupid Peter is and can be. The symbiotes spots the heroes and charges at them, "Sorry…" The apprentice to Salem summons her flame sword and uses the blunt force of the hilt to knock down one of them to the ground before it could grab her, "But I'm not one for hugs." She joked.
The Amazing Spider-Man uses his arms and spins in place, effectively turning himself to a human tornado and destroys the incoming symbiotes before jumping into the air and spots the pod. "Have a taste of my explosive webbing. I hear it's good for your cholesterol." He quipped, using his web shooters to shoot out a couple of explosive web balls into the pod's mouth, causing the thing to blow up after swallowing the explosives. He then lands next to Cinder, "Great. One down, a million more to go. This is so exciting." He joked, making Cinder groan on possibly how many symbiote pods they need to destroy.
One after another, the scarlet blue duo destroy more and more symbiote pods throughout the city.
"You tired yet?" Spidey asked his partner while they take down another symbiote hive.
"Nope." Cinder replied.
"How about now?" Spidey asked her again while destroying a rooftop symbiote hive.
"Ask me later." Cinder replied.
"This is the part where you tell me you're exhausted, right?" Spidey asked her the same question again, this time underneath the city while destroying another symbiote hive.
"Keep bothering me and I'll give you an 'up-close' answer." Cinder replied again, now getting irritated by his constant questions and banter.
"Okay, Spider-Man, which direction has more symbiotes?" Cinder asked the web head on the location of more symbiote hives.
"Hmm, I would say…east." Spidey pointed east, using his symbiote senses and have tracked down more symbiotes there.
"Good, then I'm going west." Cinder said before she starts walking away.
Spidey stumbles a bit when she decided to split up. "That's not very nice!"
"Sorry, but I think I'm getting a little tired. Try not to die on me." The crimson anti-hero said with a smile, waving back at the confused super-hero.
"Fine, have it your way." Spidey takes off a bit of his mask and sticks out his tongue before walking in the opposite direction of her. "Hmph. I'm glad I'm not united with her anymore. Sheesh." He said before swinging away to fight more symbiotes.
After about two hours of fighting and destroying more symbiotes on his own, Spidey takes a quick break from the constant search and destroy, fully aware that despite his best efforts, the symbiotes' numbers haven't decreased at all. For a matter of fact, their numbers are growing, with more and more humans getting infected, and of course, blaming Peter for this mess.
Peter chugs on his water bottle, refilling himself before he had enough and closed down on the cap. "This city is getting worse and worse with the number of infected people growing from within. Just wished I knew what these new symbiotes' weaknesses are, if they have one that is. And me…" The slightly depressed hero looks at his right hand and puts it on his chest, thinking about what Salem said to him about his 'light and darkness' a while ago. "Hmmm…" He thinks long and hard about her words, wondering if they were true or not, but it only leaves him more confused than he was before. He then decided to check on his Other, his spider other, "Ero, you there? Are you okay?"
A few seconds later, the Great Spider-Totem God himself, Ero, appears before Peter in his humanoid spirit form, looking a little winded than usual. "Ero, buddy, are you alright? You look tired." Spidey asked with concern tangled in his voice.
"I'm alright…Just tired, that's all. Been constantly battling your symbiote's influence for constant hours. Trying to keep it from completely taking over. I've managed to keep its rage quelled for the time being, but I can feel its power subconsciously growing more and more. Eventually there won't be much on how I can stop it from fully bonding." Ero explained to Peter, making him look a little depressed.
"Sorry, Ero. Didn't mean to cause you so much trouble." Peter responded with a sad face across his red mask, feeling guilty for getting his partner in this predicament.
"That's alright, Peter. I can still keep it at bay for a little while. But there is more you want to talk to me about, is there?" Ero asked, already knowing the inner struggle Peter is facing.
"It's about what Salem told me. About how my soul is uniquely composed of 'light and darkness' among other things. But I still don't completely understand her ancient words of nonsense." Peter said to his Other for advice and clarification.
"There is…SOME truth to Salem's words." Ero responded.
"You mean there is more to my soul than meets the eye?" Spidey joked.
"As the Avatar, AND the modern-day reincarnation of the Great Weaver, your soul is more special than most mortals and Spider-Totems. Your soul is like a mesh of twilight because of your sacred position, and as the epicenter of the Great Web of Life, it can also have an effect on your powers depending on the circumstance, since they are derived of magic and science combined. Light magic, dark science, dark magic, and light science." Ero explained to Peter about his unique soul.
"Okay, I am barely following." Peter said, still really confused about what Ero is trying to explain to him.
"Possessing a soul of twilight can also be hard to control. Trying to use and perfectly balance between light and dark can be hard even for some gods." Ero continued his explanation.
"Probably because they don't take their sacred coffee each morning." Peter joked.
"In your case, your humor and guilt represents your light and darkness respectively. And while you have mastered your light, you have barely mastered the darkness within you." Ero said.
"You say my guilt represents my darkness, but I've already accepted that fact. It's primarily the reason why I'm a super-hero in the first place." Peter said, using the death of his Uncle Ben as his primary motivation in his heroics.
"Indeed, but I've sensed that guilt of yours growing more and more uncontrollable by the day. That is where your black suit is gaining most of its power."
"No its not! How can you be so sure?" Peter asked, defending himself that his guilt isn't growing to unspeakable levels.
"Peter, I've been living inside your body for months now. I have seen even your deepest thoughts that you've kept locked and rarely think of in your mindscape." Ero said to Peter, since both souls share a body now, so it's understandable he knows what Peter is and has been thinking. "Your guilt, when not properly controlled, could someday make you perform the most dramatic and extreme of ideas, like ridiculously proclaiming nobody dies when you're around when you know that's impossible. Making risky and idiotic deals that threatens all life to save only one. Even messing with time itself using quantum energy from a time storm to rewrite history to save your loved ones."
"That last one sounds awfully specific." Peter pointed out.
"You'll see for yourself later." Ero replied, hinting at a future adventure for the web head that may or may not come to pass. "The point is, Peter, your guilt can be a great cause for many of Earth's disasters when not probably mastered, and the only way to master your guilt is by mastering your darkness."
"And the only way to master my darkness is by joining the losers of evil, right?" Spider-Man asked the Spider-God if that's the only way to control his darkness.
"Perhaps…" Ero responded, hinting that may not be the case at all.
"Huh?" Spider-Man looks very confused and lost on what he's getting at.
"Just remember this, Peter: Life isn't so black and white. There are numerous ways to know yourself without losing yourself. The most ridiculous and unthinkable inquiries can lead to the most marvelous of answers." Ero gave a very vague and confusing answer to Peter, knowing very well it'll take some time for him to understand his meaning.
"Can't you just give me a straight answer without turning yourself to the Riddler?" Spidey asked, tired of the Spider-God's riddles.
"You've have already taken the first step in understanding the light and dark…" Ero said, thinking back to Peter's brief conversation to himself back on Remnant, about how light and darkness are always needed for the will of the universe to survive. "Now it is up to you to learn the rest and achieve ultimate perfect synchronization within your soul. With that, you will be unstoppable." And with those last words of confusing wisdom, Ero disappears back into Peter's body to continue holding off the symbiote's influence.
Peter scratches his mask, "Perfect Synchronization? What is he talking about? Why does he and Madame Web always do that? Never giving me a clear response? Whatever." Before the amazingly confused arachnid could continue with symbiote hunting, he gets a call from Cinder through his mask's internal phone system. He picks up the call, "Don't call me, I'll call you. Ah, too late, so what do ya want?" He asked his partner through the phone, already hearing the angry growl through the other line from his annoying greeting but quickly calms down.
'I just saw S.H.I.E.L.D. quarantine camps popping up throughout the city. Thought I should inform you. I'm about to investigate one now.' Cinder informed his annoying partner.
"So S.H.I.E.L.D.'s getting involved, huh? That's not good. I'm gonna check one out myself. I'll contact you later on what I've learned." Spidey replied.
'Okay, but be careful, 'cause I doubt S.H.I.E.L.D. will be too happy to see you when everyone is blaming this mess on you." Cinder warned him.
"AND you. Don't count yourself out just because they don't relate wall-crawling, violent symbiotes with your Saturday morning hairdo. Spidey retorted, angering Cinder in the process. "Anyways, thanks, I'll be careful." As he swings off to visit one of these S.H.I.E.L.D. quarantine zones.
Small SHIELD Quarantine Zone somewhere in the city
In a small section of Manhattan, SHIELD agents have already locked up supposed infected civilians in small cages, not wanting to risk this infection spreading any further. The people inside are frantically questioning their current predicament to the authorities while also trying to figure out what's wrong with themselves, why they feel so sick and woozy.
"Everybody calm down!" One of the armored up SHIELD agents shouted.
"You are under quarantine, by order of SHIELD!" Another agent spoke up to the civilians, but his words fell on the deaf ears of the increasingly worrying civilians.
Thankfully, Spider-Man arrives just in time in hopes of quelling this heating arguments between SHIELD and the people. "What are you doing!? You've got infected people in the crowd!" The web-slinger said to the blue armored agents.
"We have orders to detain!" Another agent said to the hero, backing him off.
"They have alien parasites!" Spider-Man argued with the agent.
"Spider-Man! You are under arrest!" The spectacular wall-crawler turns around to see special SHIELD agent, Black Widow, walking over to him, and alongside her is Winter Schnee: Older sister to Weiss Schnee, Atlas Specialist of the Atlesian Military from Remnant, and recently appointed their special liaison between her military organization and SHIELD after the Goblin Nation incident.
"Black Widow and Winter Schnee?! Me?! What did I do?!" Spider-Man asked, confused and worried.
"Spider-Man, you are wanted… "Just before Winter could finish her statement on Spider-Man's supposed crime, out of nowhere through electricity bolts, the high-voltage villain Electro pops in, getting everyone's attention from his sudden appearance.
"WHERE IS SHE?! WHY DID YOU TAKE HERRR?!" Electro yelled out, confusing everyone on the premises on who he's talking about.
BGM-Spider-Man: Web of Shadows OST-Boss
"Electro?! What is he doing here?!" Spider-Man asked as the electricity villain zooms around the premises a few times at lightning speed, trying to find 'her' but couldn't.
"She's not here! Where did you take her?!" Electro asked before escaping the premise, with Spider-Man en route to chasing the villain down.
"Where is he going now?" Spider-Man asked himself, avoiding the electric bar-shaped barriers that Electro is setting up to slow down the hero.
"Stop following me! You don't understand!" The scared and extremely worried Electro said before flying away as a lightning bolt.
"Your right! I don't understand!" Spidey replied, completely left in the dark on Electro's motivations.
"She never did anything bad in her life!" Max said while flying through the air in hopes of avoiding Spider-Man's pursuit.
"WHO ARE YOU YELLING ABOUT!?" Spider-Man asked, vaulting over a few electric bolts fired by the screaming Electro as he does so. The Spider does his best to slow Electro down by shooting multiple web balls at him, but they disintegrate the moment they come in contact. Seeing how long ranged attacks have no effect, Spidey goes for the direct approach, webbing up his fists and starts beating on Electro as the fish-faced lightning man recharges his power. After a brief bout, Electro flies retreats yet again with Spider-Man still hot on his trail. "Electro, what are you doing?!" He asked, finding himself in front of the floating Electro and receiving a shock to his arachnid systems. With the bug temporarily paralyzed, Electro immediately retreats into the air. "Ugh…I don't know what's gone over Electro, but he's putting innocent people at risk. I have to stop him." Spidey said as he gets back up, chasing the crazed madman to the rooftops.
Electro shoots some more lightning bolts at Spidey, forcing him to retreat and find cover. "Leave me alone! You can't stop me!" The human thunderbolt proclaimed before escaping again by flight.
"We'll see about that." Spidey retorted, giving chase once more.
As the Spider continue chasing Electro through the intensely-filled night of New York, they come across another SHIELD quarantine camp. Electro, in the form of electricity, flies inside the small camp, scaring the people inside, causing them to run out the doors when they also notice some of the infected humans turn into Symbiote Snatchers and starts chasing them.
"Great. This is truly what I needed now." Spidey said, not in the mood to deal with aliens and a lunatic madman with powers over electricity. The marvelous Avenger quickly takes down the symbiotes just in time to see Electro frantically bounce around the neighborhood. "What's wrong with him? The confused hero asked himself before continuing on with the chase.
From above ground and through the streets, Peter tries his best to keep up with Electro, who is more interested in running away than fighting the wall-crawler unless to keep him off his back for a few seconds, but no amount of thunder bolts and yelling won't keep this persistent bug down for long, especially when he really wants to know what has the villain so scared and worried.
"Electro! Max, please! Tell me what's going on!" Spidey asked while swinging through the city, dodging all the debris and electric barriers Electro keeps shooting at him.
"You won't understand! None of you can't stop me!" Electro said, getting a direct hit onto the Spider, causing him to drop flat on his belly as they've found themselves at another quarantine zone filled with on-the-amok symbiotes attacking the ill-equipped SHIELD agents.
A devilish Snatcher spots the semi-conscious Spider-Man and immediately starts pouncing on the ground as he gets closer and closer, and just before it could pounce and rip off his face, it's face is met with the aggressive fist of the Black-Suited Spider-Man, who put on the evil suit unconsciously once again. With the power of his G-Symbiote, Spider-Man quickly destroys the remaining symbiotes with a single, devastating tendril whip before he turns his attention over to Electro.
"I'll tear this whole town 'til I find her!" Electro said, producing dangerous amounts of electricity, causing all sorts of havoc throughout the city as he keeps on flying away.
"This has got to stop! I'll have to put you down, Electro!" Spidey proclaimed, quickly giving chase.
"You just try and stop me!" Electro said, as they take their fight to unfinished train tracks. The voltage menace shoots highly dense lightning blasts from his hands, forcing Spidey to parkour on the side buildings to avoid damage, kicking Electro in the chest to quit him from trying to fry him. "Leave me alone! Using her to get to me! YOU'RE PART OF IT!"
"But I'm your friendly neighborhood…Ah, never mind." Spidey said, dodging even more electric bolts while trying to reason with Electro and repeatedly failing. "Electro, whatever you're saying is not making any sense!"
"SHIELD took everybody from the building!" Electro responded while still fighting Spidey using long-ranged electrical attacks.
"Electro, you have to understand-!"
"I understand everything! I did my time, but they still took her, and it's all your fault!" Electro fires numerous and painful lightning blasts from his hands right onto Spider-Man, shocking not just him, but greatly injuring his symbiote, causing it to scream in horrendous pain. The black suit forcefully switched back to Peter's old red costume just as Electro stops and retreats again.
"Ow, that really, really hurt…" Spidey said in his mind as he quickly gets right back up and continues his pursuit onto Electro. "The suit. I felt it was in great pain when Electro shocked me. The same pain it would feel when it comes in contact with fire and sonics. Could it be the G-Symbiote's weakness is high voltage electricity? That has to be it! Why else would it willingly deform to avoid the continuous shock? Guess this Grimm/Symbiote hybrid really does have a weakness, but I'll put more thought into it later. Right now I have to deal with the crazed, electric star-fishface." He said, chasing Electro through the city while avoiding the symbiotes that are rampaging through the very same city.
Thankfully, the fight between the Electric Boogaloo is about to come to a close, as they arrive at a local power station. Electro floats in the middle and starts to absorb power from the plant, unleashing devastatingly huge lightning bolts at the Spider, forcing him to hop and swing away from his dangerous attacks, but at the same time tricking him to destroying the very substation he's absorbing power from. With the substation destroyed, Electro's powers start to overload as he can't contain that amount of power, blowing himself up and sending him flying smack through a couple of pillars that make even Spider-Man wince and wonders if he's okay.
BGM End
The injured Electro lands on a nearby rooftop, slowly gaining the strength to stand back up. Just as he gets up, someone from the ground covers him in ice and is then shot down with a sniper gun, causing him to roll over and fall to the ground, seemingly killed by the sniper, who so happens to be Black Widow, with Winter Schnee standing next to the Russian spy/agent.
"Move in. Target neutralized." Black Widow said to the other SHIELD agents.
Spidey swings down so he could talk about Black Widow's harsh methods of engagement. "You didn't have to shoot him."
"You answer our questions, mister." Winter said, giving a cold glare to the webhead.
"Max, Max…!"
Spider-Man quickly turns around to see a young girl calling over to Electro's seemingly dead body. "That's my brother!" Electro's younger sister, the one he was searching desperately the entire city for, looking over his body while two SHIELD agents hold her away from him.
"We have news footage of you." Black Widow continues talking to Spider-Man, still insisting on his arrest.
"Let go! He's my brother!" Electro's sister said to one of the SHIELD agent, and to everyone's horror, she so happens to be infected with a G-Symbiote and is starting to manifest around her body, giving her strength to escape the grasp of the military agent and run over to Electro's body, with her symbiote getting more and more outrageous by the second.
"NOOOOO!" Spider-Man shouted, as he, Black Widow, and Winter watch as Max's infected sister transfers her symbiote to him, bringing him back to life as a newly-formed Super Symbiote. Symbiote Electro starts hovering in the air, and with little time to waste he unleashes a huge electric discharge shockwave, strong enough to destroy a couple of nearby buildings and kill dozens of people.
Thankfully, Winter and Black Widow survived and slowly regain consciousness. Natasha then gets her head together and starts to turn to her right to arrest Spider-Man. "Spider-Man, you are under-." She and Winter start to notice Peter is nowhere to be seen and are smart enough to know he wasn't killed from that electric shockwave.
"Huh? Where did he go?" Winter asked Natasha. The two take a quick survey of the area to try and find Spider-Man's current location, not noticing that he was saved by his unlikely partner in symbiote crime, Cinder Fall, who was in the area and quickly saved Spider-Man. From the rooftop the two are on, she takes a quick peek back down to see if they've noticed her. And once the coast is clear, she uses her powers of ISO-teleportation to teleport herself and the unconscious Spider-Man away from the premises.
BGM- Spider-Man: The Animated Series OST (1994)- Ending Theme
Spider-Man: Sup, I'm Spider-Man. Listen, I think I might know a way to stop the symbiotes, but to do it we need to break into Ryker's Island and free the Tinkerer.
Cinder: Hold on. Goody-two shoes Spider-Man wants to break a criminal OUT of prison? You sure your symbiote isn't controlling you to do this?
Spider-Man: No, unfortunately, but if we want to save the city, and possibly the universe, we need his help.
Cinder: You're risking to getting yourself arrested by sneaking into a maximum security prison, starting a fight with the guards, and using the RHINO to cause a bigger ruckus? I actually like this side of you. Count me in.
Next time on Spider-Man and Cinder: Flaming Web of Light and Shadow-
Jail Break
Spider-Man: You know, if Iron Man or Reed Richards was here, I wouldn't be putting myself in this much trouble!
KFX here: If you paid close attention to Peter's and Ero's conversation, you might have recognized I made a few references to other events in the Spider-Man mythos like Peter's infamous "Nobody dies" quote from the comics, One More Day (Fuck that storyline), and future, evil Peter Parker from the game Spider-Man: Edge of Time. It would seem that Ero really wants to prevent Spider-Man's guilt and darkness from reaching those levels, especially One More Day. Not even the gods liked that storyline and wants to make sure it never happens.
And also, no ISO-Chaos Armor in this story. That armor is only preserved for extreme universal threats.