The Invincible Spider-Man
Chapter 92: The Enemy Within
"Stereoisomerism, why didn't I think of that?" thought Spider-Man, thinking about the antidote to Li's corrupting touch. "This just cements Dr Connors as a true genius," he continued, swinging atop a building and perching on its ledge.
He took out the device that tracked his Spider-Tracer and examined its display.
"Darn. The truck has stopped at multiple places. I could tip Yuri off to raid them and get the weaponry, but I can't risk them accidentally finding Li's hideout. Like it or not, the cops are no match for Mister Negative," thought Spider-Man, as the sun began to set.
"There's no time to check them one by one. Even if I do, Li could get tipped off and move. Shit, every second people are turning because of him, way faster than the cure can be mass produced," Peter scolded himself.
"As always, I find you on these rooftops, sulking," said a familiar, sultry voice. Peter sighed and turned around.
"Felicia, I don't have time right now," replied Peter.
"This isn't a booty call. I can help you," said Felicia.
"Right, how? Robbing another museum?" asked Spider-Man.
"Okay, stop being a douchebag, will you?" she asked in retort.
"Then tell me, why now? Why wait till shit hits the proverbial fan? If you could help me, why didn't you help me before?" asked Peter, in an accusatory manner.
"Because I was afraid. I was afraid Li would come after me if I did anything," replied Felicia, shifting from foot to foot. Peter's eyes widened.
"You worked with Li? When? And why?" interrogated Peter.
"Remember that day when we broke into that museum and robbed that mask? I told you my client was trying to replace Wilson Fisk," said Felicia.
"You're kidding me," replied Peter. "That was Li?"
"Not Li, Mister Negative. Back then, Li didn't know that Negative had resurfaced. They seem to be one and the same now, which is why I decided to help now, no matter the threat," explained Black Cat.
"Does it matter if they're one and the same? In my eyes, dissociative identity or not, he deserves jail," said Peter, squaring his shoulders.
"Peter…Martin Li was the only one who kept Mister Negative subconsciously at bay. If they both truly are harmonious with one another, the danger is unlike anything you and I have ever faced," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"If that's the case, then it's too dangerous, Felicia. I'll go after him myself," said Spider-Man.
"I can help. I may have narrowed down his hideouts," said Felicia. "When I was working for him, he'd ask to meet in random places. At least, I thought they were random. When I plotted them on a map of New York, I managed to somewhat narrow it down," said Felicia, unrolling a map she was carrying with her and sprawling it on the roof.
"Upper Manhattan?" asked Peter.
"Is where we would always meet. But think about it: If you were working with someone you didn't trust, would you meet them in a place close to your house, or hideout, would you?" she asked.
"So that removes Upper Manhattan from the equation," said Peter.
"As well as, Chinatown and Greenwich," continued Black Cat. Peter looked back at his tracer display.
"The van stopped at Lower Manhattan…I'll check it out," said Spider-Man.
"You mean we will," corrected Black Cat.
"I told you, it's too risky. Don't argue with me on this. Thanks for the help," said Spider-Man, swinging away before she could reply.
Spider-Man swung to the address, perching himself on a lamppost to catch his breath.
"Swung too fast…need to breathe," he thought. Just then, his Spider-Sense began to act up. He jumped up, narrowly missing a cup of coffee being thrown at him.
"COP KILLER!" shouted a civilian. Before he knew it, a mob had gathered around him.
"GET AWAY FROM US!"
"MURDERER!"
"HE'S GONE INSANE AGAIN!"
"Oh man," thought Spider-Man, jumping out of view behind a building.
"Just when I was getting admiration from the public, I screw up again. Great job, Peter," he told himself, crawling to the top of the building and scanning for any unusual activity.
His eyes scanned the area around him, fixating on a ship away from the mainland. Peter squinted, and noticed men carrying crates of guns.
"It's a storehouse all right, but is Li on there?" thought Spider-Man. He jumped off of the building and stealthily swung above the ship, zipping himself onto a crate.
"Quietly does it…" thought Spider-Man, as the Inner Demons continued to move crates of firepower inside the hull of the ship.
"Hammerhead is gone. It's time we commence our takeover," said Martin, walking out from the hull and onto the deck of the ship. All the other Inner Demons assembled onto the deck in front of Mister Negative.
"Is this a private party or can I join in?" asked Spider-Man, jumping directly in front of Mister Negative. Li scoffed as he turned around to face Spider-Man.
"I should have known you would have found me after that nimrod Hammerhead got taken down," chuckled Mister Negative, cracking his knuckles and rotating his shoulders. He then aimed his hand to the Inner Demons around him, and began to drain all of their energy.
"Oh boy," thought Spider-Man. Mister Negative screamed as his eyes glowed an even brighter white. Peter shot a web towards his chest, but it simply unravelled and dissolved into thin air.
"Now…you'll face the consequences, Spider-Man," said Mister Negative, his voice echoing as he slammed his palm into the ground. A blinding white light enveloped the both of them. Peter shielded his eyes but found himself knocked off of his feet and sent off of the boat.
"WOAH!" he exclaimed, landing on solid ground instead of water. The world around his was a monochrome black and white, stripped bare of any human indicator and just a desolate, barren, New York.
"Not this again," groaned Spider-Man. That's when the whole ground began to shake and Spider-Man's Spider-Sense began to go nuts.
Peter jumped off of the roof and to the side of the building. From the ground, rose a massive demon. A demon that stood on four legs, its face a massive Demon mask as it roared to the sky.
"You just had to make this harder, didn't you?" asked Spider-Man, webbing up an empty car and slinging it to the demon's face. The monster staggered its neck back, but then swiped at the building, completely tearing it down.
Spider-Man instinctively jumped away and swung to the top of another building.
"Thank God we're in this weird…negative dimension, otherwise the damage to the real world would have been catastrophic," thought Spider-Man, shooting webs at the demon's mask.
Despite its size, the demon moved insanely fast, scrambling on its legs and chasing down Spider-Man through the empty streets of New York. Spider-Man stayed just inches away from the demon's claws, dodging whenever he could.
However, the demon violently slashed Peter, throwing him into a building. It then grabbed his legs and pulled him out, slamming him onto a lamppost.
Spider-Man coughed as he struggled to get to his feet, only for the demon to kick him down the street.
"Li, we can talk about this…" groaned Spider-Man, dodging another hit and webbing one of the demon's hands to the ground.
"YOU'RE NOT STOPPING ME!" shouted Martin, as the demon grew larger, picking up an entire building.
Spider-Man's eyes went wide as he stumbled to his feet and began to run away from the demon, which lifted the building and began to slam it onto the ground. Spider-Man shot out a web and pulled himself up with all his strength.
The building crashed to the ground, barely missing Spider-Man as the shockwave sent him flying forwards, crashing into the street.
Spider-Man's vision went blurry while he grabbed his dislocated shoulder. The demon climbed over the rubble and picked up Spider-Man by the throat, lifting him up closer to its face.
"Your parents' death wasn't your fault…Martin. This isn't you!" reasoned Spider-Man, struggling to speak. Martin was floating behind the mask, his face reflecting anger and confusion.
"Please, Martin…" said Spider-Man.
Mister Negative snapped his face back to Spider-Man and snarled.
"This is what you deserve for interfering in my plans, Spider-Man," said Li. The blinding light enveloped both of them as Spider-Man closed his eyes.
He blinked open his eyes and found himself back in New York, floating in the sky. The demon was standing in the middle of the street, tightening his grip around Spider-Man.
Police cars were shooting at the demon, but the bullets barely seemed to be doing any help.
"Not here, Mister Negative," said Spider-Man, pushing the demon's fingers off of him and managing to escape. The demon slashed again and hit a building, but Spider-Man managed to evade. He shot a web to the demon's arm, then swung from it and landed on its back.
Peter sprinted up the demon's back and towards its nape, punching through it and shooting a web towards Mister Negative.
"NO!" shouted Martin, turning around and pulling Spider-Man inside the demon, grabbing him by the throat.
"You don't understand, Spider-Man. This city took everything from me!" shouted Martin, tightening his grip. "Why should I stop the inevitable?"
Peter grunted, his lenses cracking under the pressure. "It took everything from you, and yet you founded F.E.A.S.T, to help others, to help this city! Don't let the demon win, Martin. You're better than him!" said Peter, struggling.
"He's lying! You know he is!" shouted Mister Negative, shaking his head vigorously and snarling at Spider-Man.
"The man who founded F.E.A.S.T, who helped all of those people…who truly believes that helping others is its own reward, would never do this," whispered Peter, struggling to breathe.
Martin looked down, then back at Peter, before throwing him out of the Demon's body and down to the street.
Spider-Man landed on a car and tumbled onto the ground. Before he knew it, the Demon stood on its hind legs, smashing a building with its left arm. Peter lodged his dislocated shoulder back in its place, before shooting two webs to the Demon's hands.
He used all his strength to pull the arm away from causing any damage. Mister Negative raised another hand to slam on the street, right on a crowd of police officers.
"NO!" shouted Spider-Man, running at full speed and jumping right on top of a car in the crowd, holding both his hands up and stopping the hand from crashing onto everyone.
"Go…now!" exclaimed Spider-Man, holding the Demon's palm up. The officers began to evacuate the area, as Spider-Man's shoulder began to dislocate again. He pushed up one final time and jumped out of the way, missing the impact by a hair's width.
Peter fell on his stomach, unable to find the will to stand up. The Demon shrank in size, until it was just Mister Negative floating in the sky, descending down to the streets.
He grabbed Peter's leg and then the back of his neck, before lifting him up.
"I sense hate in you…anger, so much of it," said Li, holding Peter higher by the back of his neck. He took out a sword and stabbed it into Peter's back.
"AAAAAARGHHHH!" shouted Peter, the burning sensation radiating from his back to the rest of his body. The sword didn't go entirely through, but enough to penetrate his skin and muscle.
"You could have been my strongest warrior…I'm just going to have to take all your energy," muttered Li, in a tone of disappointment.
Memories began to flash through Peter's eyes. Each time Flash Thompson pushed him in a locker, every time he was rejected by a girl, every time he felt like a failure to aunt May and uncle Ben.
He closed his eyes tight and began to see Uncle Ben dead in his arms, the graves of George and Gwen Stacy, Spot, Jean Dewolff, Eddie Brock, and every victim that lost their lives every time he fought an enemy.
"You remember…all of them? Not just the ones closest to you…Peter?" asked Martin, pulling the sword out of Spider-Man's back.
Spider-Man fell to the ground, but something was different. His suit looked like Mister Negative's: completely black and white, with the colors flowing like liquid on his suit.
"What's happening?" asked Martin, looking at his body. His powers seemed to be flickering, his suit switching from a normal one to one with inverted colors every second, and Peter realized what was going on.
"Your powers are controlled by uncontrolled rage, Martin. But I have more control over my anger, and energy transfers from a higher level to a lower level," replied Spider-Man, holding his hands up.
He aimed his hands towards Martin, and a blast of negative energy hit him in the chest.
Mister Negative was sent flying back, as Spider-Man's hands began to glow black and white. "Time to even the playing field," said Peter, clenching his fists as he slammed it into the ground.
A large white light enveloped Martin, who instinctively closed his eyes shut.
Martin opened his eyes and found himself in the same black and white environment that he had trapped Spider-Man in. However, it was as if he had no powers this time.
Spider-Man landed in front of him, his body radiating with energy.
"Why did you bring me here? You took away my powers, what else could you take?" scowled Martin.
"That's not you talking, I want to talk to the Martin Li I know," replied Spider-Man.
"He's not coming back ever again. If you kill me, you'll kill us both," replied Mister Negative.
"I'm not going to kill you. But I won't let you ruin your life like this, Martin! You need to fight this demon that's taken control of you!" reasoned Peter, holding Martin by the shoulders.
"You're a pathetic fool, he gave me control over his body. No matter what, I am never going to give it back!" scowled Mister Negative.
"I know what it's like, to give in to something that makes you feel more powerful, more secure than you could ever imagine. It…it takes away the anger, the pain, everything. But it replaces it with something far worse, trust me. You're not a monster, Martin. You need to fight all the anger if you truly want to win," said Peter.
Mister Negative let out a deafening scream and held his hands to his face.
"I'm…done with…YOU!" shouted Martin, jumping back and falling onto his back. Spider-Man staggered away, as the helpless man began to sit up, propping himself up on his knees.
"P-Peter?" asked Martin, trembling as he looked back up to the Webslinger. Any trace of corruption in his eyes was gone.
"Martin, is that you?" asked Spider-Man, taking his mask off. Li took a look at his face and broke into a river of tears.
"Oh god, what have I done?" he sobbed, looking back at the ground. Peter knelt down and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"I know what that pain is like, Martin. The pain of feeling like you've failed everyone around you, the anger that comes with it. But none of it is true. If you truly were as pathetic and as rageful as Mister Negative claimed you were, F.E.A.S.T would not exist," said Peter.
"I saw your pain, I saw everything. It's why my power flowed through me to you, you're angrier than me," said Martin, his breath still shaky. Peter sighed.
"I know. But it doesn't matter how much anger you have, what matters is how you deal with it. Everything that's happened these past few months isn't your fault, Martin. You were a victim of your own anger," said Peter.
"Thank you, Peter…for saving me," said Martin. Peter nodded, as Li handed him back his mask.
"But I still need to accept responsibility for my…I mean, Mister Negative's actions. It's the right thing to do," said Martin. Peter put on his mask and nodded, touching the ground again.
The duo found themselves back in the middle of the destroyed street. Spider-Man was back in his now torn up red and blue costume, while Li stay on his knees as the police surrounded him.
"He's not a threat anymore, don't treat him like one," said Peter.
"Yeah whatever, "cop killer,"" scoffed one of the officers. Peter sighed as he met eyes with Li, who nodded knowingly and turned away.
"We'll take him to Ravencroft Asylum, he'll receive treatment there," said Yuri, to Spider-Man.
"Yeah, I hope he gets better," said Spider-Man.
"Also, between you and me, I think we should put this partnership on hold for a bit, at least until the whole Macendale situation cools down," replied Yuri.
"Wonderful," sighed Spider-Man, swinging away from the scene and onto a roof.
He looked down and saw Li being strapped and transported into a secure police van, while Damage Control and first responders flooded the area to help civilians and clean up debris.
"How do I always screw up even after doing the right thing?" thought Peter, somberly.
2 WEEKS LATER
"The Fantastic Four have officially returned from another trip in space where they claim to have defeated the alien known as "Annihilus" once and for all! In other news, public opinion on Spider-Man seems to have soured even further, with a lot more people claiming that he's a menace to society. It is astonishing to see the wall crawler's rise to fame and almost immediate downfall in terms of reputation," said the podcaster.
Peter took out the earphones and sighed, massaging his eyebrows as he waited outside Connor's office.
"Peter? There you are!" said Curt, rushing up to him.
"I went through the diagnostic test, and…" started Curt.
"And?" asked Peter.
"I'm sorry, but you just barely missed the percentile required for entry into the special program. But, I managed to appeal to the board and squeezed you in for a spot," informed Curt.
"Oh. Thanks, I guess," muttered Peter.
"Not the smoothest landing, but look on the bright side! You could graduate university in the next few months itself!" said an ecstatic Curt.
Just then, Mary Jane came rushing into the corridor, panting.
"Peter! Peter!" she exclaimed, finally locking eyes with him.
"Sorry doc, I need him for now," said MJ, grabbing him by his arm and dragging him away from Curt.
"MJ, what are you doing?" asked a surprised Peter.
"It all makes sense now. Literally everything since high school. How secretive you are, how you got so ridiculously buff out of nowhere, according to Harry. How you keep disappearing, how you keep having…injuries," prattled MJ, glancing at his chest.
Peter felt uneasy. "MJ, what are you saying?"
She bit her lip and sighed, trying her best to calm herself.
"You're Spider-Man, aren't you?"
Well, that was quite a cliffhanger! Find out how everything turns out in SEASON 7 of The Invincible Spider-Man, coming soon!
Sorry so much for the delay everyone, but things have gotten super hectic lmao. I've got my final exams in about 3 weeks, and then I graduate high school! Still a really scary thought that I'll be in university by the time September comes around lol. I had prom the other day, and wow it was the best night of my life, it's honestly amazing to see how far I've come in the last few years, super surreal to think about it.
Also, a month ago was the 3 year anniversary of this story! Thank you so much for everyone who has stuck with it and made it as successful as it is! Love you all and I hope you all stay for the future too! I began reading every single issue of Amazing Spider-Man on December 7th, 2022, and after 4 months I reached Amazing Spider-Man #750! Gonna continue reading too.
Fate-Be Changed: Yep true!
Marvel Nerd: I hope you liked it!
lordz: It's definitely an interesting idea, I'll look into it!
Geek4Life: Probably no lol.
Teller-Story: He definitely will
I am the Voice: Certainly!
SpideyXBC: Definitely the latter lmao.
Yours Truly,
Shadow Strike.
