After defeating the Rhino, the streets became eerily quiet. To the point Spider-Man and Kid Arachnid (Miles has yet to approve of the name) had winter break off.
MJ however caught something over the break so was off during the first day and Anya couldn't hang out after school due to her having to get to work.
Peter started to question if Anya was trying to avoid the three of them as much as possible due to her degradingly hanging out with them.
"So, black suit?" Miles asks after the two of them finally had a minute to talk about it when they got back to school and had a chance to talk about it.
"Don't get used to it. I don't control it." Peter warns him. "I'm also told it's dangerous by Dr. Ehret at Queen Consolidated."
"So...why do you still have it?" Miles was curious to ask.
"Well, it's proven itself useful." Peter defended. "I couldn't save you without it. Or stop Rhino from killing the cops."
"That's true." Miles supposed. "But what's the cost?"
"Right now, nothing." Peter shrugged, not noticing any differences between him with or him without the suit.
That's when one of the screens near them broke the breaking news, which in this case was of a new episode of a show.
Kraven's Amazing Hunt!
"Ooh, Kraven's hunt has an announcement," Miles said as he saw an announcement coming out and watched it.
"Coming soon...a live hunt for the top hunter in the world." Then it showed a photo, followed by the title coming through the Hunter. "Kraven the Hunter!"
"They'll give a reality show to anyone doing anything nowadays." Peter rolled his eyes at hearing about this. "A Hunter and he deserves his own show?"
They then got an alert on their phones to see a crime taking place. Seems that their old friend Scorpion has been let out on parole and was already back at his crime spree.
"Looks like our old friend is back," Peter said.
"Great. I've wanted to try out my new tricks on him." Miles said as the two made their way out.
Finding Scorpion was easy enough due to his want of destruction. But the strange thing was when he spotted the two of them, instead of trying to fight them, he ran off.
"Where does he think he's going?" Miles asked as he landed on the side of a building and Peter landed on a post.
"What the heck?" Peter was just as confused as he began to chase after Scorpion. "Something doesn't feel right here."
"Really? What gave it away?" Miles questioned as he followed Peter to chase him down. "The villain running away from the heroes, or is it your spider tingle?"
"Spider-sense." Peter reminds him. "And no, it's more of a gut feeling."
They followed Scorpion until he was out in the open when Peter and Miles came in and webbed him down.
"What I mean is that Scorpion is either a tail for hire, or he's working with someone," Peter claimed as he wrapped Scorpion up. "The question is who? And what's the endgame?"
"This is the endgame!" Scorpion claimed when a store with televisions in the window showed the Kraven show had just started.
"Over the years, I've roamed the jungles of the world, stalking the most dangerous creatures alive." Kraven narrated as Miles was instantly glued.
"Ooh, Kraven's amazing hunt!" Miles cheered.
"But today, I've come to the asphalt known as Starling City to hunt something different." That's when they cut to live footage and Peter was concerned when he recognized the buildings on the tv were the ones they were next to. And that fear became more justified when they then drew over to Peter and Miles.
"Hey. That's us." Miles said as he raised his hand to see his tv counterpart doing the same. But that's when the realization struck him. "Wait. That's us."
"The most dangerous prey of all, the menace known as...Spider-Man." Kraven said and zoomed in on Peter.
Peter then looked to where the footage was coming from and saw Kraven the Hunter himself aiming a rifle at them.
"You might wanna pick a new favorite show," Peter informed Miles as he as well noticed Kraven aiming at them.
"Any last words, Spider-Man?" Kraven asked as he was aiming at Miles. Miles, not knowing what else to do in this situation, gestured over to Peter, getting Kraven to look and see the original.
"Two Spider-Man?" Kraven questioned in shock.
"Thanks a lot!" Peter exclaimed at Miles, a little irritated by that.
"What? I'm not Spider-Man." Miles stated with a sarcastic tone. "I'm Kid Arachnid. Totally different guy." He then got serious and shrugged it off. "Besides, all of these reality shows are all fake, right?"
That's when Kraven shot them, getting the two to react and jump in two different directions. Miles leaping over to the shops and hiding under the drapes, Peter leaping and hiding behind the cars.
"Fake?!" Peter exclaimed. "You really gotta work out your spider-senses."
Kraven was currently filming everything that was going on and got a call. Groaning, Kraven put his gun away, keeping his eye on the prey as he answered the call.
"I told you not to call when live," Kraven told the man on the other end and listened to what he had to say. "Only the original?" Seems this person who hired Kraven only wants Peter Queen. "As long as the other one is mine." He then heard the agreement on his terms and grinned. "My pleasure."
While he was distracted, Peter webbed over one of the darts. "Well, these are tranq darts, meaning he's at least trying not to kill us on live television."
Miles then came out of hiding to correct him with his knowledge of the show. "He takes his prey home and kills it before he stuffs it there." Peter couldn't believe his luck and smacked his head against the car. "But it's all just a show for the cameras, right?"
"Something tells me this guy is more interested in the reality than the television," Peter said as Kraven started to shoot at them and the two of them immediately began swinging off.
"Scorpion was a setup!" Peter scowled himself for not catching up on that. "I can't believe I fell for that like a rookie!"
"Don't beat yourself too much," Miles interjected as he swung beside him. "You saw the danger, ran off to stop it."
"Yep. But now we're running through the city with a Hunter chasing us down." Peter reminded Miles of their predicament because they ran in blind. "We need to get out of here and come up with a plan to deal this guy a reality check."
With Kraven, he was running across rooftops and turned to the camera. "Do not worry, faithful viewers. Kraven the Hunter always gets his target." He leaped over a gap on the buildings with ease. "I can leap with the ability of a Jaguar." He then dropped off the roof and grabbed onto a flag pole and spun around it. "Swing with the ease of an orangutan." He then landed on the ground as the small camera drone kept following him. "And strategize with the cleverness of a human." He walks up to the nearest person he could find on the street. "To which terrain did the prey escape?"
The man looked at Kraven, no idea what he just said. "What?"
Kraven sighed and saw he chose the wrong person. "Which way did they go?"
"Oh, they went that way." He gestured in the direction that they ran off to.
"Many thanks," Kraven said before running off in that direction.
Back with Peter and Miles, they were swinging off and Peter got an idea of how they can at least stay off of Kraven's trail.
"Let's head to the school. We can drop off in the alley and get changed to come up with a solid plan." Peter told Miles as they swung in the direction of the school.
Miles swung beside him, both of them missing the turrets aiming at them until their senses go off. Looking over, they see some goo being shot out of the turrets and the two quickly tried to avoid them.
"Oh, I can't believe this!" Miles cried as he leaped out of the way of the goo. "Kraven sets traps based on the behavior of his prey and their paths!"
Peter couldn't believe he's hearing this as he himself tried to dodge all of the goo and pulled the both of them into the alley. "So you're telling me that he knows all of our paths, all of our frequent locations?"
"Yep." Miles was sorry to say. "He's most likely booby-trapped all of Starling. Good thing you don't go home in your suit often enough. Otherwise, he might know you're-"
"Ah!" Peter stopped him from revealing his identity as he gestured over to the drone following them before quickly shooting it down with a web. "I can't believe we're running from our lives from a Hunter. No MJ to tell us a safe place to hide, no Anya to help either. Why would he come after us?"
"You mean you." Miles reminded him. "I'm just a constellation prize."
"What does that mean?" Peter asked.
"Sometimes Kraven hires himself out when he needs a bit of boost in his ratings. Either someone famous or someone with a lot of money." Miles explains to Peter, making him question who would be after him. "Seems someone's interested in hunting you, and I'm just for Kraven to stuff and hang on his wall."
"Are you not concerned that we're being hunted right now?" Peter questioned, feeling he's not taking this seriously.
"Sure." Miles guesses as he crossed his arms. "But he'd have to catch us first."
They then heard what sounded like a plane engine and looked over to see Kraven coming down on some high-tech platform. He had several more cameras following for better angles and him kneeling over with a rifle in hand.
"It's only a matter of time, young spider," Kraven told Miles before turning to the camera. "Preferably 22 minutes, not counting commercials."
Kraven then aimed and shot the two as they both ran out of the other end of the alley and swung off into the city.
"Not things for sure, I'm never wearing my Kraven fan shirt ever again!" Miles cried out as they swung off.
"Look at them." Kraven narrated to the cameras. "Urban human spiders their natural habitat. Amazing creatures. But do not worry views, I will make quick work of them."
Peter came up with an idea he's been thinking of trying, something he's never done before so Kraven couldn't have accounted for it. Quickly spinning around, Peter shot several dozen strands of webbing that interconnected, creating a wall of webbing. Kraven was surprised by this and ended up running into the wall, sticking his hand to the webbing.
"That'll hold him for a minute," Peter said as he and Miles landed on the Oscorp roof. "Okay, we need a plan."
"Find a place to change, and burn our outfits." Miles offered his suggestion when his head started bussing. "Whoa. What's that?"
"What's what?" Peter asked when his own senses went off. Turning around, he saw a gun shoot off a net of sorts. "Look out!" He quickly leaped out of the way, but Miles was immediately hit. "No!"
Peter went to save Miles from the net as it started to shock him, and that's when Kraven returned and opened fire on Peter. That's meant Peter had to quickly find cover behind the doorway to the roof of Oscorp.
"Go on, save your sidekick, Spider-Man." Kraven dared Peter as he waited for his opening. "I've already witnessed your analytical mind in action. Show me Joe compassionate you are to your cluster." He then stopped firing and turned to the camera. "A cluster is a group of spiders. Something you learn when you're...craving knowledge."
Peter tried to take this as an opening, but that ended with him dodging another blast from Kraven and hiding again.
"Brought to you by the good people at Public Media," Kraven said as he picked up a sphere and dropped down to fight Peter one on one.
"Did he just call me sidekick!?" Miles asked, feeling electrical energy surging through his body. His body started to absorb the electricity that was surging through the net. "Oh, no he didn't!"
That's when a giant surge of energy came off of Miles that sent the net, Kraven, and Peter flying. Miles looked down at his fingers in shock at what just occurred and saw small sparks coming off his fingers.
"Whoa. I can do that?" Miles asked as he looked down at his fingers.
"Whoa," Peter said in shock as he turned to Kraven. "He can do that?"
Kraven didn't seem to want to respond as he started to get up and Peter quickly shot him down with a dozen webs. Before he could congratulate Miles, he quickly leaped off to get a head start and Peter decided to chase after him. The two got as far away from Kraven as they could send landed on the side of a building.
"That was surprising!" Peter told Miles as he was thinking of his shocking hands.
"Yeah," Miles said as he was thinking of what Kraven said. "I thought a group of spiders was called a clutter."
"No. That new power of yours." Peter explained. "Bio-electricity? I'm a little jealous." He then got an idea of how they could fight Kraven and free-fell to the ground. "And we might have a way of stopping Kraven."
"Really?" Miles asked as he hung on a pole as he lowered himself on a web.
"Yeah. Kraven's been studying all of my patterns, meaning you've been off his radar until recently." Peter said as he sneaked into an alley. "Meaning you've been copying my patterns to the point that
"So, me being inexperienced is a good thing?" Miles questioned.
"You've been copying my moves, so we need to come up with a new strategy. Something we haven't done before." Peter said and knew to best Kraven, he needed Miles to take the lead. "Where should we go that we've never been to?"
"A comedy club!" Miles said, that being the first thing that came to his mind.
Peter couldn't tell if he was being serious or not and sighed. "I was thinking of a place with fewer people."
Miles decided to think of it for a moment and looked down. "The sewer!"
Peter looked down at the manhole and saw that wouldn't be somewhere he would normally go. "Good idea." He then webbed the manhole and yanked it into the air before leaping into the hole.
"Wait, we're actually doing it?" Miles asks, not aware he actually would go down it. "Okay." He then followed Peter down into the sewer just as the manhole fell back and landed into place.
They leaped down and got onto the wall before landing on the walkway and not the water. The last thing either of them wanted was to have to wash the sewer stink from their suits.
"Kraven couldn't set traps down here because I'd rather be caught dead than risk falling in the sewer." Peter congratulated Miles on the brilliant plan.
"Ironic because you might be caught dead if you don't use the sewers," Miles commented.
"Bad timing," Peter replied.
"Sorry." Miles apologized.
Before either of them could get too comfortable in the sewers, their senses went off, and they couldn't find where it was coming from until small projectiles fell and combined into a cage.
"I have won!" Kraven cheered as he leaped down to the sewer. "But we expected that, didn't we?"
Miles went up to try and break them out with his strength when it quickly zapped him. Not enough for him to absorb it, but enough to hurt. "No use trying, young spider. That cage is made of electric titanium alloy."
Then he used a remote to separate the two Spider-Men into separate cages. The two of them tried to find their ways out, but it seemed that Kraven was right about the strength and electricity.
"And now for the branding iron!" Kraven said as he took out a branding iron with his show logo on it.
"Uh oh," Miles said in worry. "The branding ceremony. The final step before being shipped to his museum."
"Your knowledge of this show is starting to get on my nerves," Peter informed Miles, getting sick of these notes.
"Sorry." Miles apologized.
Kraven then took the iron and walked towards Miles. "Let all that look upon these two learn they were brought down by Kraven the Hunter!"
"Here's a little Supervillain 101," Peter said and quickly shot a web between the bars and webbed the remote off of Kraven. "If you're going to gloat about your capture, heroes will always find a way to escape!" He then used the remote and deactivated the cage, allowing Miles to get free and leap, drag Kraven into the cage, and immediately followed with them activating the cage again.
"Aw, what's the matter, Kraven?" Peter asked as Kraven tried to escape his cage. "Don't like it when the Hunter becomes the hunted?"
The two of them then made their way out of the sewers and left the man behind. Sighing in relief, they believe they've seen the last of their stalker.
"I think that the Kraven show is officially behind us," Peter assured Miles.
"That's okay. I'll find a new favorite show somewhere." Miles replied.
But as soon as they took a few steps away from the sewer, the hole exploded and the two turned to see Kraven has escaped and was extremely angry by his defeat.
"You think you can humiliate me and get away with it?!" Kraven asked the two of them.
"Kinda," Peter replied.
"For centuries, my family has been the deadliest of hunters." Kraven started to monologue. "But now my rage has extends beyond that, unsuitable for television!" He then shot his own drones and several darts.
"Whoa!" Miles cried as he and Peter swung off, but the darts seem to be following them now. "I've never seen these darts before."
"They're heat-seeking darts," Peter replied as he found a hotdog stand and dropped down, allowing the darts to hit it. "Find a heat source!"
"What?" Miles asked, being too far away to hear when he was shot by one of the darts.
"No!" Peter cried as he went to catch Miles, but ended up getting hit by a boomerang that impaled him in the wall. "Gah!"
"That was a venomous fear dart that hit your friend," Kraven informed Peter as he tried to pry his shoulder off the boomerang. "Extracted from the African cobra. Not only will it scare your friend, but not treated, scare him to death."
Miles looked around franticly, no idea why he was afraid, but seems he's afraid of everything all of a sudden. Looking over to Kraven, he approached with a knife.
"No! Get away!" Miles cried as he suddenly vanished in front of him.
"What?" Kraven asked in shock. "Where did he go?"
"Where did he go?" Peter questioned in shock as he didn't know Miles could do that.
But also knew he needed to do something to help. Quickly working, he tried to pry out of the boomerang and used it to stab Kraven in the back. But his own strength was able to do that, so despite his better judgment, he used the power from the goo as it formed around him.
Once he got the goo on his suit, he used it to yank the boomerang out of his shoulder, and the wound easily healed itself, followed by Peter using a web and all of his strength and tossing the boomerang. Kraven cried in pain and fell to his knees and began trying to take it out whilst Peter raced off to find Miles.
"Miles, where are you?" Using his mask, he found Miles using his heat sensor. "There you are." He quickly landed and picked Miles up to get the two of them away from Kraven and landed on the roof of the building. "Miles, hey, I need you to calm down. I can't help if I can't see you."
Miles started to calm down after hearing his friend's voice trying to help. Miles then became visible and Peter hears sirens coming in to arrest Kraven. Sighing, Peter saw he could now stop and help Miles.
"Okay, come on. Let's get you home so I can find an antidote." Peter said as he helped Miles up and they made their way back to the mansion and sent a message to Anya he needed her to make an antidote.
Back at the Queen mansion, Oliver was dealing with a few things himself as he got home expecting to see Moria and Peter but only saw her watching the news.
"You're just in time to see the show," Moria said as Sebastian Blood was on the news.
"What's he doing?" Oliver wonders.
"Bringing the city together. And if I'm not mistaken, campaigning." Moria said.
"Is Peter here?" Oliver wonders.
"Um...not sure," Moria admitted when there was a knock at the door. "It's open."
Anya then came in and had a bag hanging over her shoulder and looked scared. "Hi, Mrs. Queen. Peter texted me. He upstairs?"
"Most likely," Moria said and Anya quickly made her way up the stairs, knowing exactly where Peter's room is.
Oliver however noticed something off between the two and wondered what was wrong. "Is something wrong with you guys?"
"What do you mean?" Moria wonders.
"I've never seen Anya that...distraught." Oliver supposed was the best word.
"Distraught?" Moria asked.
"I've been reading through Peter's word of the day calendars," Oliver admitted but got to the issue he was referring to. "But as I was saying, everything okay?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Moria tried to keep the circle of who knows the secret as small as possible.
"No reason." Oliver decided to drop it.
Anya made her way up and made it to Peter's room where she saw Miles was laying on Peter's bed. Peter looked and sighed in relief when he she Anya and walked up to her.
"Hey," Peter said as he walked over to her, noticing she was not looking him in the eye. "You got it?"
"Yeah," Anya said as she took out the serum and handed it to him. "Thought you guys had a healing factor."
"Seems Kraven accounted for that," Peter replied as he took the syringe.
"You're lucky that Oscorp had a file on the type of snake you described," Anya said as she watched Peter walk over to Miles and hold his hand to find a vein to inject the serum.
Peter looked over to see that Anya and saw she wasn't really looking him in the eye. "What's wrong?"
"What?" Anya asked.
"You haven't looked me in the eye since you came in," Peter explained.
"It's..." Anya wishes she could tell him, this secret holding her down since she discovered it. "I saw you on the news. How you took care of Kraven. Kinda scared me."
Peter remembered what he did and was sorry for how it had to end with him impaling Kraven. "Yeah, not my finest moment." He then found the vein and injected the serum. "Stay calm, Miles. You'll be good in a few minutes." He then looked over to Anya with a sorry look. "I didn't mean to go that far. I just...I saw Miles in trouble, and I knew I'd do anything to save him. He was there because of me. Both of them."
"Miles chose to help you." Anya reminded him. "He's not who I'm worried about. He wants to be like you. You, however..."
"I did what I needed to do to keep the city safe." Peter snarled, which was what got Anya even more scared. Peter seemed to recognize this and just calmed down. "I'm doing what I need to do to keep the people I love safe. Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?"
Anya sighed and saw he was getting more desperate to keep the ones he love safe. "Yes. Just make sure you're not becoming the thing you swore to never become."
Peter looked and saw Miles was finally calming down after the serum made its way through him. "You're right. I'm sorry."
Anya smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Promised MJ I'd keep her updated on you guys. Seems she's feeling better." She then went outside to make the call before she had an interesting question. "Can you guys get sick?"
"Not quite sure," Peter admitted since he has a healing factor, but who knows if they could get the flu or something.
Right now, most of his mind was running through a list of people who would have it out and the money to go after him by a skilled Hunter.
Peter's then looked down and noticed the goo was making its way around his arm. Quickly moving his hand to the light, Peter looked and noticed the goo was just his shadow.
But the goo was indeed making its way through his veins. It was making him easily more irritable. More probed to suggestion.
This creature was becoming a parasite.