Season 4 Chapter 12: Great Power

"Well well well, still neat and tidy, just like I left it…!"

So excited to start his first day as an assistant counselor of his superior, Dr. Ashley Kafka, Eddie quickly made his move to the FEAST building on his own in the middle of the morning, even though the counseling sessions were scheduled to start somewhere in the afternoon. Thankfully, he is allowed to enter as he was completely recognized by some of the stern wardens and humble residents staying in the building. After going up the stairs of nostalgia to the higher well-maintained apartment floors, he pauses by the stairs as he notices a familiar plate numbered door near the stairwell. Fortunately, it is still vacant and empty, just like the day when he started going to ESU for college— until many unthinkable and tragic things have transpired, especially from the one and only person who he once heartfully called "brother".

"…Good ol' times back in the day. Sure feels strange trying to be alone now… especially after meeting a gal like the doc…!" Eddie chuckled out loud while reclining across his bed, blankly staring up at the rusty metal ceiling like the old days when he first stayed in FEAST. 'But… now that I think about it. I think I should try something else. Gotta be more proactive and probably find more jobs. Maybe then, I can be a better guy choice!"

'…at?!'

Suddenly, some muttering was faintly heard echoing in his room. After a moment shrugging it off, thinking that he's just hearing things in a nostalgic state…

'Why can't you mooks just do your job without drawing any more attention!?'

"What in the…!?"

After realizing that he wasn't just hearing things, he goes around the room, searching to see where the faint voice is coming from until stops next to a wall with plumbing pipes connected behind it. The voice was barely heard from the vibrating pipelines connected near his room that it curiously lets him move a little closer to eavesdrop better.

'Listen, flat top! If your boys knew that company would be waitin', we coulda been doing smooth if we weren't goin' out there blind!' Scorpion barked in anger.

'Not my problem that you mooks failed on your own! I'm just assigning the easiest jobs for you all to do!' Hammerhead huffed.

"Okay, now that does sound suspicious," Eddie thought out loud, skeptical of the charitable facility that he once called home.

He quickly leaves his room, trying to narrowly follow the echoing voices trailing up the pipelines that leads Eddie down to the dark decrepit basement floors, where the storage areas were told to be usually located. However, what he stumbled upon inside the basement was a very vacant and empty space, which makes its serving purpose oddly ironic. In the room that's only littered with a couple of empty crates and barrels, he hears the voice coming out from a rickety old steel door. Judging from how rusty and dilapidated the suspicious entrance was, this dangerous charade must've taken years of effort to hide in plain sight beneath an innocent-looking organization for the needy. Quite miraculous that no one noticed it—unless they're apparently in cahoots as well.

'Bet Pete would say something like, "into the lion's den",' Eddie thought to himself as he snuck inside through the entrance.

The entrance trails down a dimly lit underground tunnel with exposed steamy pipelines that stretch to who knows where and several rooms that are strangely guarded by a pair of men wearing freaky-looking black masks that might be of Asian origin, some armed with assault rifles and others with normal batons and blunt weapons. 'Okay, this is totally freaky to the highest degree. How did all this get down here!? Who are these guys!?'

One of the demon-faced henchmen quickly turned to barely notice his presence behind a crate and went to check with a baton in hand, only to be caught into a tight headlock and was unable to match with Eddie's heavyweight strength as a former athlete and a host of an alien symbiote, slowly losing his consciousness in his strong grasp without being able to let out a yelp for help.

Eddie slowly dons the freaky mask and clothes of the henchman. Thankfully they all fit on his big stature before he takes the weapon and puts the unconscious man into a dark corner. As he slowly approaches the other henchman, not drawing unnecessary attention in his disguising as the henchman's colleague in the suit and mask, albeit his walking mannerism caught his eye until he narrowly spotted Eddie's shoes to be somewhat different from his colleague's.

"Hey! Buddy! Whatcha doin'? Our orders are to stay here!" The masked henchman points out in a suspicious tone, callously holding his gun close.

"Oh yeah? Sorry 'bout that, bro. I just didn't know what's wrong with ME!"

With a simultaneous combo of pulling the henchman close by his shoulders and knocking him out cold with a strong headbutt using the masks' hardness, he easily takes out another and carefully drags him over to the corner where he hid the other unconscious henchman before moving forward down the trail, rest assured for now being armed with the gun and baton while wearing his disguise. But first, for good measure—and with a hint of hesitation— he takes out his phone and calls for his not-so-competent brother by bonds, Peter Parker.

'C'mon, Parker, pick up!' Eddie angrily mutters, tapping on his phone and putting it close to his ear.

"...Yeello! ESU Student, Peter Parker speaking?" Peter quipped, lying across his bunk bed in his shared dorm room with Johnny and Hobie inside and no sign of Randy.

'It's Eddie,' Eddie plainly replied.

"...What is it this time— bro?" Peter immediately sits up tensely and replied out of spite after recognizing the voice, getting Johnny and Hobie's attention.

'Look, I don't have time to explain, but something big and bad is going on underground. Below the building that's named FEAST. You better hurry. And bring some company with you. I'm going in,' Eddie quickly explained before ending the call abruptly.

"Eddie? Eddie!?" Peter called, internally panicked when Eddie cut himself off.

"I smell trouble. Is there trouble?" Johnny wonders.

"Yeah, and it sounds big. But wait, FEAST? Why there?" Peter thought out loud.

"That home for the homeless?" Hobie adds. "Think Bobby and the girls should know?"

"Well, Eddie said to bring some company, so we should take what we could get. Let's go!" Peter replied before taking his stuff.

"Finally! Some action!" Johnny exaggerated with excitement that he jumped out of his seat.

"My bro said something's going in there. Something bad, and knowing him, we gotta go!" Peter alerts the other two and jumps off the bunk bed, heading for the girls' dorm to get Gwen, Liz, and Kitty—and Janice if possible.

However, before they could leave, they suddenly became frozen stiff in fear as they unfortunately bumped into their other roommate, Randolph "Randy" Robbertson.

"Uhm, I'm guessing you guys need to go somewhere?" Randy casually asks.

"Uhhh, yeah, yeah," Peter nodded with a weak smile.

"Okay then…? I can hold down the fort. But try not to go horsing off somewhere. Wouldn't want the management to annoy me in my nap. I just got back from the Bugle for an errand for my pops," Randy cooly explains in detail.

"O-Oh sure! Will do, man!" Johnny bade.

"We'll see ya in a bit!" Hobie adds before the three of them successfully leave the premises.

"...Hmmmm, odd…" Randy thought, raising an eyebrow with a hint of suspicion as he closed the door before inspecting the dorm apartment.

The dark underground passage seemed endless, trying to traverse around the narrow pathways and avoiding suspicion from more of the guarding henchmen stationed at every corner. That was until he paused just near an open lit room that's echoing the same voice that he heard from the surface.

"Well, this seems kinda promising," Eddie thought as he crept closer before feeling something sharp prick and sting him on the back, instantly paralyzing him that he fell on his front.

"Well well well, look what the rat dragged in. A little imposter."

Catching Eddie redhanded was the green ill-tempered savage arachnid-themed thug with a tail and a mouth full of venom, Mac Gargan, aka the Scorpion.

"Guess I better thank my tarantula senses that one of our blokes was snooping around where he don't belong," Tarantula smirked, crawling on the dark ceiling before dropping on his two feet and dragging Eddie by the back of his collar. "How unlucky, ain't he?"

The two arachnid villains burst through the door and enter a spacious briefing room, where they meet with Hammerhead, Rhino, Stegron, Vulture, and another person in a lab coat by the wall full of monitors.

"Hey! We found this dirty little rat scurrying around! What should we do with 'em? I say pulverize!" Scorpion angrily suggests with a grin.

"Oooh! I can do that! Lemme at 'em!" Rhino eagerly accepts.

"Waitaminute, how long was he around? I haven't seen 'im in these parts before," Hammerhead noticed something unfamiliar with Eddie in his disguise.

"So, what do you suppose we do with him?" Vulture suggests.

"Punishhhh him. Make him tasssste fear," Stegron slyly hissed.

"Holdup, I think I've seen 'em before. He's from the institute full of cuckoo criminals and patients. One of those counsel dudes," Hammerhead halts. "A shame that you poked your nose around where you're not supposed to… The big boss ain't gonna be happy about this."

"Calm yourselves, boys and gents. It's not the end."

Stepping into the light in a tattered lab coat, wearing a black dri-fit and black shorts over his green hairy muscular skin was the Jackal, the monstrous shell of his former human self, Dr. Miles Warren. With a maniacal grin, he examines the slowly awakening Eddie, sensing a familiar air around him before his memory clicked.

"Hold on, I recognize you very well! You were that lousy critter scurrying for cash in my former workplace! And to think that we'd meet in these circumstances, oh what a fortune for me!" Jackal maniacally laughed, about to scratch Eddie's face with his sharp nails.

"Gentlemen! What's with all the ruckus here!?"

There standing by the door with the aura of confidence in the entire room with poise and intimidation of a cunning schemer was the founder of FEAST, Mr. Martin Li, accompanied by an entourage of those weird-masked henchmen in suits. Before his presence, the six ill-tempered villains and the numbskulled thug Hammerhead stood their ground and were anxious for his orders, showing who has total command in the hidden underground facility. With a smirk on his mug, he calmly walks over to the center of the room where Eddie's apprehended.

"Geez, what happened to you, Eddie? Boys, just what do you think you were doing to our guest?" Martin sternly warned with what appears to be white flames faintly manifesting in his angry pupils.

"B-But boss! Sir! He's an intruder! He's been sneaking around the area and—"

Before the stuttering Scorpion could say another word, Martin mercilessly fires a wild blast of white energy at him out of his hand without hesitation, pushing him to the edge of the room and leaving a depression of the painful impact from his energy blast before the villain fell on his face and front flat. The so-called philanthropist blows the whiff of white energy off his hand with a simple blow before patting it off on his shirt.

"You guys still seem to be lacking manners. Maybe I should talk better sense into you all… personally… but not now, of course," Martin casually points out with a venomous tongue, showing his true colors beneath the innocent appearance.

"No…freaking…way… you're… you're a monster!" Eddie screamed before being restrained and held close to a stinger by Tarantula.

"Tsktsktsk, Eddie, monster sounds a little rude and derogatory for the things I could do. My powers are a gift to help many," Martin assured.

"Ugh oh, wuh? I'm…not hurt?" Scorpion groaned as he checked his body with a refreshing feeling in the air.

"That's because I only used my "good side" on you. So try not to get on my "bad side", 'kay?" Martin winked with a sadistic grin.

"You're a sick sicko, Martin!" Eddie barked in anger, struggling to break free from Tarantula's Spider-powered grasp.

There Martin points his hand in a gun hold, pointing at Eddie that it made Tarantula hop out of the way in fear and shoot Eddie with a bullet of dark black seething energy, causing him to fall on his knees.

"What…did you…do to me!?" Eddie begged and groaned from suddenly being put into a daze.

"A piece of my "bad side" really. Slowly and steady, it can eat you from the inside out, and I can get a hold over your feeble brawn-for-brains," Martin cracks a smile before drinking a glass of water that was left of the table before dissipating it into thin particles with the ignition of a combined spark of that white and black energy coming out of his body.

"Wh-What are you!?" Eddie demands.

"Looks can be really deceiving, Eddie. In my normal everyday clothes and appearance, my real name is Martin Li, an ordinary goodie-two-shoes and philanthropist. But on some other days…!" Martin starts to transform from his normal colors into one that is demonically dark and erratic, an embodiment of dark and light. "Call me Mister Negative! Welcome, to the den of my Inner Demons!"

The room suddenly turned cold despite the warmth of the light until it was temporarily snuffed out by a cloud of darkness emanating out of his body, scaring the villains and henchmen with a small demonstration of what his powers could do at even the smallest level.

"This is enough to scare you guys?" Mister Negative chuckled before reverting back into his normal form and adjusting his necktie and blazer. "I mean, I'm shocked."

"When I get…my hands… on you! I'll—!"

"You'll what? What can you do? The darkness inside you will slowly eat you from the inside, and then… I might as well make you a little free labor," Martin callously thought out loud. "But for now, I have something better in mind."

"Grrgrh, like what!?" Eddie growls.

"The doctor from the institute," Martin plainly replies, making Eddie glare daggers at him upon mentioning the doc.

"No— you lay one finger on her! I'll tear you! I'll rip you!" Eddie barked, trying to fight the seething darkforce corrupting his body.

"Why do you care so much for—oh, I see how it is. No wonder. This is all the more reason that she'll show up with the state that you're in," Martin sadistically replied after connecting the dots between Eddie and Ashley.

Meanwhile, for Spider-man and his Spectacular Friends, they all swing around racing through the city until the FEAST facility is just within reach. But instead of storming in, they better come up with a plan on how to infiltrate without having the innocent homeless involved with anything dangerous that might happen…

"Huh, for something so innocent, I never thought that we'd have to break into it. You're really sure Eddie's telling the truth?" Ghost Spider asks for clarification while staring at the building from afar with the others.

"Well, I'll just have to say yeah. If this is big as he says it is, then we get to take down another crime lord and put an end to his reign," Spider-man quips.

"This is going to be like our second one yet!" Prowler excitedly quips.

"Yeah! I'm soooo fired up!" Liz eagerly agrees.

"But let's try to make this quick or whatever, 'cause I'm kinda famished," Human Torch groaned with a growling belly.

"We can hit the nearby Joe's after. But right now, it's hero time!" Shadowcat gleefully cheered.

"Huh, now that I think about it, we can actually try heading inside without dragging any attention to ourselves," Spider-man realized.

"Uhm, how exactly?" Liz nervously asks.

"...It's by going in as normal regular guys and gals," Spider-man unmasked himself. "But we're gonna need to split into two teams: one has to enter through the front, and another's gonna need to sneak in through the back, and we can try to rendezvous with each other when we're safely inside. Shadowcat is obviously taking the back lead, since you can phase through solids. So… Liz, Johnny, Bobby, you're with Kitty on this one."

"Okay, whatever you say, bro. Safer than going in naked with your face to behold," Iceman shrugged his shoulders.

"So that leaves me, you, and Hobie left. But how are we gonna enter without suspicion? It's not like the guards will approve total strangers to just look around the place," Ghost Spider points out.

"Gwen, you forget. I'm an exclusive photographer for the Daily Bugle. Journalists and photographers of the press have the right to be society's watch dogs! Or something like that," Peter jokes.

"That settles things then," Prowler unmasks his helmet, collapsing it into a small depression in his armor that is able to take all of his few equipment and turn them all into an ordinary purple backpack.

"Showoff," Peter complained as he had to put on his long sleeved shirt and cargo pants over his costume and put on his shoes while Ghost Spider simply shrinks the suit away, wearing her turtleneck and cargo pants and sneakers in one-go. "Agh, maaan."

Shortly after, the team quickly split up: with Spidey leading the front and Kitty leading the back. While Kitty's team hold hands onto her and phase into the building's interiors as planned, Peter heads down to the entrance with Gwen and Hobie, acting as his temporary companions and assistants on his way as a photographer from the Daily Bugle, as rehearsed on the fly.

"Hehey! Excuse me pal, my name is Peter Parker? I'm a photographer for the Bugle?" Peter casually points out in a nervous tone, showing his identification card as a Daily Bugle photographer.

"The photographer of Spider-man! Ah, I know your name from somewhere! He saved one of my buddies from the construction site! So what brings you here, little man? You won't find your friend here," the security guard casually asks in return.

"Oh—well, I was hoping to check the place on how cool you guys are to provide so much for the people, regardless of their backgrounds and problems. Iss that okay with you guys?" Peter nervously asks.

"Hmmm, well, I don't really see anything wrong with that. Go on in," the security guard reluctantly agrees.

"Oh, Joey! You forgot your snack for the day!"

A familiar voice was heard, spooking both Gwen and Peter with hopes of a false hope. But coming out from the well-lit canteen inside with a bundled egg sandwich was unexpectedly the gentle and softhearted homemaker May Reilly Parker, Peter's own Aunt May. The slapping sight of his aunt getting involved with what could've been a scandal is a horror show on so many levels, even for Gwen, though Hobie is left around in the dark again, being clueless of who she is.

"Waitaminute, Aunt May!?" Peter screamed in a surprised and subtly horrified tone.

"Oh my, Peter dear! Gwen darling! What brings you two here? And who is this? A friend?"

"Ummm, hello?" Hobie nervously greeted with a wave and a weak smile before inching close to Gwen in confusion. 'Uhm, who is she again?'

'That's Peter's aunt!' Gwen softly screamed, making Hobie astonished and scared for what's to come out of their mission.

"Guh—uhm, well, I am actually here to get photos for the Bugle! They're here to actually assist me and give me their share for me to edit. I promised to give them a fair piece of the pie," Peter smoothly said, hiding his internal panic from what's about to go down. "Wh-What about you!? What are you doing here!?"

"Oh goodie! I was actually here to volunteer in their little pantry! I also managed to tryout some of my own homemade recipes for the people here, and they love it! What joy!" May gleefully replied, letting Peter, Gwen, and Hobie enter without attracting unwanted attention. "You should know, it feels so good to just help the people here, getting them back up on their feet and blending back into society. I feel sorry for these folks that have things tougher than we do. Some of them have no relatives nor friends; others have lost their jobs; and the rest sometimes are outcasts. But here, all that doesn't matter, because every life matters, and we have to help them whenever we can. After all, Peter—"

"With great power, comes great responsibility?" Peter continues, surprising both Gwen and Aunt May from quoting his heroic mantra.

'With great power…comes great responsibility…' Gwen lets the quote sink in, recalling that vivid dream in her sleep thanks to Mania.

Suddenly, her mind flashbacked to the strange dream Mania introduced to her…

'Wait, you're Ben Parker! You're Peter's uncle! You're—'

'Whoa easy there, Gwen, no need to panic. As you might've known, I am truly gone, but the thing that won't change is that I'm still here for Peter, and now, for you,' Uncle Ben assured, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

'But wait, no, this is just a dream! It has to be!' Gwen denies, trying to wake herself up.

'And you're right. I'm only a memory, well, from Peter,' Uncle Ben smiles at her genuine honesty before stretching out an open palm to her. 'Gwendolyn, come with me, there is something I would like to show you.'

'Pst. Lovergirl, you should go,' Mania suggests, with Gwen nodding in response and seeing her off walking with Uncle Ben into a realm of memories before dissipating for a moment.

The late mentor of Peter leads Gwen down into viewing several fragments of memories that the symbiote managed to mentally photocopy when Peter was once its host. The first scene flashing involves a short talk between Peter and Ben in his car near the library from a few years ago, with Gwen and Mania quietly sitting in the backseats to listen as viewing spectators. However, it was secretly revealed to her that Peter's motive had a different plan other than studying…

'W-Whoa,' Gwen softly yelped from the sensation of the transition, tapping into memories that don't belong to her.

'Well kiddo we're here!" Uncle Ben replied.

'Here?' Peter nervously repeated.

'The library!' Uncle Ben stops the car for Peter, looking confused from his tense reaction. 'The one across from the venue? You said you wanna study here?'

'R-Right…' Peter trailed off before coming up with a serious question. 'Uncle Ben, i-if you could do something—do it better than anyone else—then it wouldn't be wrong to—you know, cash in on your talents, right?'

'Well, son, that would depend on what talents that we're talking about,' Uncle Ben replied looking puzzled, making Peter frown from his vague response before he held Peter back by his wrist. 'Listen, kiddo, I went through exactly the same thing at your age.'

'N-No, not exactly,' Peter replied in protest.

'Peter…' Gwen muttered.

'Sh!' Mania shushed.

'Point is you are changing—into the man that you're gonna be. And just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. With great power, there must also come—'

'Great responsibility…!' Gwen repeated and gasped, having been merely injected with the memory of that life-changing quote, yet feeling the same heart touching impact.

'This is not the end yet,' Mania assured.

'Your friend is right, Gwen. Come, here's another thing I'd like to show you,' Uncle Ben offered his hand, with her taking it and instantly transports them into another flashing scene.

The next scene shown is the moment from about a night later after the talk, when Peter fails to cash in on his newfound abilities in a wrestling match and finally confronts the burglar that took Ben's life, all thanks to Peter's indifference and intentional negligence. Mania quickly forwarded the memories of Peter's worst mistake in order to give her a proper context without having to totally bring her through the extreme pressure and pain Peter would've felt at the time, and yet it still felt so real for the blonde girlfriend. And then the moment quickly paused at the point Peter, donning his Spider-man alias, held the spooked burglar by the collar over the shattered second floor window in a dark abandoned building.

'No way… no, did he really—!?'

'Calm down, Gwen, watch him take his vengeance,' Uncle Ben assured with a smile and a hand on her shoulder.

'I should drop you! Take what you took from Ben Parker!' Peter barks in anger under his mask before immediately letting go of his grip and watches the white-haired burglar fall to the ground.

However, just before he fatally hit the ground, a web line quickly attached to his heel, saving his face that's just inches away from his death and safely exposed in front of the officers that rushed to the scene.

'But he wouldn't approve. With great power comes great responsibility…!' Peter growled, never forgetting this moment and Uncle Ben's last famous words.

'Peter… I'm sorry— I-I didn't know he… he…' Gwen sobbed, cupping her mouth from the pain she's feeling.

'But that's not the end of it, Gwen. That… is only the beginning,' Uncle Ben adds.

Suddenly, an intense wave of memories just flooded down in her mind where Peter donned the hero and saved countless lives including hers, all bearing fruit in the famous last words from his late uncle, and how he is never alone as he initially thought. But… it is still missing something…

'I could never be like Peter. I couldn't bear that burden the same way he does,' Gwen admits.

'That's because you were impulsive and unstable. You were already beaten down, and somebody had to talk you out of it, one way or the other,' Mania crept up close with a glare.

'I nearly killed somebody…' Gwen sighed.

'And so did Peter, but both of you overcame things differently. And who is to say you're not like my boy?' Uncle Ben huffed and chuckled with a smirk, crossing his arms in amusement.

'Wh-what?' Gwen responded, looking confused.

'Guess you need a friendly reminder,' Mania deadpans, this time taking the reins as she pulls Gwen deeper into her own consciousness—her own memories.

There she remembers the time she saved Peter from being totally mangled by the fake tech magician Mysterio; the time she took down a gangster mob with Peter and his friends; the time she destroyed most of Norman Osborn's secret underground operations with Venom and Spider-man to save New York from impending chaos; defeating Hobgoblin and his own hidden criminal agenda; saving the innocent from Hydro-Man's terrorizing rampage; and then the most recent one protecting bystanders from the recent Sentinel attack; some among many other deeds that she has done for the good of the city, the people, and the team— fighting as the spectacular Ghost Spider.

'Are you still sure about yourself, now?' Mania deadpanned again.

'Like what she said. In many aspects, you have slowly become what Peter already was, and is. Don't dwell too much about the past, Gwen. And know that there are still things you can be, into the woman your own family would want you to be,' Uncle Ben encouraged with a gentle parental smile. 'I bet your dad would be proud seeing what you are becoming now.'

'I...Thank you…Mister Parker! I-I won't disappoint you!' Gwen nods with affirmation.

'Anytime, kiddo. Try to be there for my boy, would you? And if you need anything, Peter and I are always there for you,' Uncle Ben bade before merging away into her own mind.

And after mentally replaying the amazing dream she had last night upon hearing the famous six words, she leaks a tear down her eye before wiping it away, making Hobie notice something strange.

"Gwen, you okay?" Hobie asks out of concern.

"Hm!? Y-Yeah! Peachy!" Gwen quickly replied with her weak yet vibrant smile.

"Well, Peter, Gwen, and uhm, what is your name, young man?" Aunt May kindly asks.

"Hobie! Hobie Brown, at your service!" Hobie saluted with a smile.

"Hobie. If there is anything you might need, the staff here are always open to you. Have fun exploring!" Aunt May cheers before leaving them alone in the canteen area and heads back into the pantry.

"Hehehe, yeahhhh…" Peter trailed off with a nervous grin, knowing that things are just about to get ugly. 'C'mon guys, there's no time to waste!'

Gwen and Hobie nodded in response, and immediately they entered the housing building and down the stairs before heading for the nearest men's and women's room to quickly change into their respective suits, commencing the nitty-gritty part of their mission.

"Good thing we checked for cameras. Annoying little things. Seems like there is stranger stuff going on around here," Hobie, donning his Prowler suit without his cape, oddly noticed out of vigilance.

"Same here. Pretty creepy if you ask me. Who would've done this?" Gwen, wearing her Ghost Spider suit, also adds in an anxious tone.

"Well, now that we destroyed them, chances are our cover's blown, unless we can just hope Kitty's end saved us from that," Peter, wearing his Spider-man suit under his Spider-Armor Mk 1.5, thought out loud. "Kinda glad the security here's not that tight. Talk about bad news if they found my suit because of a metal detector.

"Yeah, that would be bad, both for you and me," Prowler adds, nodding in agreement as he pops out and retracts his sharp claws.

"Let's go! Maybe Eddie's in trouble if this is really true," Ghost Spider orders and dives down the stairwell instead of going down the stairs.

"Since when is she the one giving orders?" Prowler asks in confusion, raising an eyebrow.

"Since now…?" Spider-man shrugged before diving down, followed by Prowler.

Meanwhile, in the Ravencroft Institute, workplace of the kind-hearted head psychologist Dr. Ashley Kafka...

*Vrb! Vrb!*

"Oh! Hello?" Ashley responded, picking up Martin's call on her smartphone.

'Good morning, doctor. I humbly apologize for interrupting your work,' Martin replied.

"Oh um, for what reason?" Ashley innocently wondered what he meant by that.

Suddenly, Martin turned the phone call into a video call and showed his smug face in front of the camera and screen.

'It's just that— something actually came up on our doorstep that you might wanna see,' Martin replied, showing Eddie in pain on his knees.

"Eddie!" Ashley jumped out of her seat in horror. "Wh-What happened to him!? Mr. Li, why—!"

'Doc…? No— don't—!'

'Not to worry, doctor. He is fine to some extent. And he is waiting for you,' Martin replied. 'Don't keep us waiting, doctor. I can't guarantee that he'll come to you unscathed.'

Martin immediately ends the call before she could reply back.

"...Eddie…!" Ashley gasped before quickly packing her things and car keys to immediately drive the quickest route to the FEAST building. 'Eddie, please be safe!'

"Why—why are you doing this?!" Eddie grunted, barely able to stand on one knee.

"Why, you ask? Do you seriously not see how much her worth is to guys like me? She is our ticket to power!" Martin rejoiced in excitement that he reverted into his monochromatic form. "She handles many of those riffraffs and unstable people in her little playground for rehabilitation. Just imagine the possibly good manpower I can take if she is under my wing, just as these big baddies are under my thumb."

"You're a sick man, to the core, Martin," Eddie shook his head in pain.

"Hmph, to be honest, I was surprised having found interesting information concerning you and a certain friend you've lost. But no matter, with my Savage Six and your precious doctor in the palm of my hand, those slimy heroes will have to think twice if they'll ever be able to stop me and my plans for the future of our beloved city," Martin scoffed with a grin.

"Sorry pal, but we don't just "think". we act."

*Thwip! Tick!*

From a certain direction, a webline suddenly appeared and quickly snags Eddie away from under the villains' noses, revealing Spider-man and his Spectacular Friends by the door.

"Took you long enough. Argh!" Eddie groaned from the pain before being helped up on his feet by Human Torch.

"Wowsers! Neat quiet place! Is this some sort of secret villain book club you guys have here?" Spider-man quipped.

"Then where do you suppose all the books are?" Ghost Spider quipped with a question.

"Oh little arachnids, still the naive youngsters you always are with your little wits and jokes," Jackal cackled with a nasty grin.

"Wait, Dr. Warren!?" Spider-man gasped from his unexpectedly and somewhat ghastly green appearance again.

"Warren? As in, Dr. Aaron Warren or Dr. Miles Warren?" Ghost Spider reluctantly asks for clarification, though hoping it is the latter.

"Pah! Don't make me laugh by comparing me to that weakling of a brother of mine!" Jackal scoffed.

"Okay, it's Miles," Ghost Spider deadpans.

"Hagh, just when I had hoped not to ruin my day with murder," Martin sighed and groaned as he brushed his hair upwards in anger, slowly leaking his dark energy and light energy as he transformed into shades of monochromatic colors. "But, I guess I could settle with squashing the likes of you to loosen a little."

"Sorry but we're not the kind of harmless type service to people like you…!" Spider-man taunts, pounding his armored fists together.

There the Savage Six under Mister Negative huddle around their boss as well, including the annoyed assistant Hammerhead, making the place a 7 versus 8 standoff.

"Huh, guess we have the number disadvantage here," Spider-man humored.

"Not helping, Spidey," Liz deadpanned as she fired up in her flaming glory.

"Eddie, you should leave. We can hold the fort down here," Ghost Spider sternly suggested, with Eddie nodding before leaving the room.

"Okay team! Ten hut!" Spider-man playfully rallied like a football captain.

"Well this should be fun, like the football days," Prowler grunted, popping out his retractable claws.

"I've never played actual football. We just kinda use sporting balls for power training," Shadowcat cutely shrugged with a weak smile.

"Get them!" Mister Negative orders, letting the Savage Six attack.

"Scatter! It's a battle buffet! A team deathmatch!" Spider-man quipped before swinging away to dodge an angry Rhino running towards him.

And now a clash of superpowered beings commences, between Spidey's usual ragtag team and Martin's organized mafia and thugs.

"Wait, what happened to football!?" Ghost Spider cried as she dodged Hammerhead's close combat techniques and kicked him away in the gut before shielding herself from some of the weirdly masked henchmen that were shooting their guns at her.

"Who cares! Wing it!" Iceman gleefully replies as he fires icy blasts at Vulture and Stegron while running along an ice slide attached to the wall.

"C'mere you annoying arachnid!" Tarantula angrily roars and tries to stab Spider-man with his stingers.

"Taste this!" Scorpion barked as he stung Spider-man on the front with his tail.

"Hehehehehe, nice try, fellow arachnids," Spider-man chuckled and snorted under his armored mask, grabbing Scorpion by the tail and use his own body to whack and slam Tarantula to the wall behind him before throwing him to the wall with Tarantula to simultaneously incapacitate both of them. "Hah! You see that? You see this suit?! It's called scientific progress! But cool and sleek with a touch of art!"

"Who cares, bro!?" Prowler barked in protest as he avoided the attacks of Jackal and Stegron while dodging bullets. "Ghosty! Trade foes!"

"Deal! Wait, what!?" Ghost Spider yelped before having no choice but to lower her shield and race to switch enemies with Prowler this time taking the annoying masked men while she handles a Dino-man and a mad scientist. "Ughh! Dr. Warren!?"

"Grrrgh, impudent arachnid!" Jackal growled from her calling his name out that he retaliates with an acrobatic fighting style and lands a scratch on her arm.

"Ow! Hey! That actually hurt!" Ghost Spider exclaimed in pain that she returned with a heavy dropkick before her enhanced senses detected Stegron's ferocious hostility and dodged his large sharp orange beak.

"Ssssspider-girl, I shhhalll feassssst on your body well!" Stegron hissed aggressively as he tries to grab or chomp onto the nimble Ghost Spider.

"Oh shut up, Dr. Vincent! Quit it with the dino act already!" Ghost Spider quips as she dodges his attacks and lands a good dazing jab to his beak and then another to his face before finishing him with an uppercut below his chin and webbing him up for the meantime.

"Little girly! I got you now!" Vulture laughed as he charged toward Shadowcat, only to phase through her and smash both his body and flight gear to the wall.

"Oh shoot, sorry old guy! A-Are you okay?" Shadowcat yelped.

"Ready for a spitfire double whammy, big guy?!" Human Torch taunts the Rhino as he and Liz prepare spheres of burning flame in their palms.

"Let 'er rip!" Liz exclaims as she and the Hothead fire their flames right at Rhino, slowly increasing the temperature in the room as the heat intensifies.

"Uhh guys! Easy with the firepower! It's getting hotter here!" Spider-man yelps while he engages in combat with Mister Negative.

However, it just so happens that his opponent is an expert martial artist that could beat his Spider-sense. Spidey has a little trouble trying to beat his moves and read his techniques, but was still slow in close quarters compared to Martin "mischievous" Li that he fell from a double cutting leg sweep.

"Owch! Good moves," Spider-man winced and grunted from the pain of being on the ground.

Martin then gets on top of Spider-man and grabs him by the neck before trying to "corrupt" his mind while he's on the ground.

"Now, you shall listen to me!" Mister Negative orders, trying to forcefully pry his way into Spider-man's mind.

"Just…gotta…keep…moving…!" Eddie groaned as he limped around the underground passages and props himself onto the wall, slowly succumbing to Martin's corrupting power.

"Eddie!"

Faintly seen running down the dark tunnel with the worried look on her face was Dr. Ashley Kafka, heeding the video call that had his life threatened before her very eyes.

"Oh no, Eddie, please! Stay with me!" Ashley cried, trying to pull his arm over her shoulder to carry him. "Don't black out! W-We need to find you a hospital!"

"No…doc, leave…! You—you can't stay here—aghk!" Eddie grunted and coughed in pain, trying to keep his bearing and composure.

"But you need help! Come on Ed, please! Get up!" Ashley cried, struggling to get him out of the underground passage, unaware of gleaming white flames that were taking over his eyes.

'...Whoa what's going on?' Spider-man thought out loud.

Back at the room, Mister Negative has Spider-man trapped in his grasp and drags him down deep into his consciousness, trying to slowly corrupt and brainwash it with his dark force energy.

'Okay…this is way weirder than the background the ooze got in the back of my head,' Spider-man meeped before being startled by a tremor coming from behind him.

Suddenly, Mister Negative manifests himself mentally in his mind, still showing off in monochromatic colors with a smug smirk on his face.

'Give up your mind, Spider-man. Do it, and I promise that—'

*Thwip! Pack!*

'Can it, man! This is not my first rodeo getting brainwashed!' Spider-man quipped in annoyance, webbing his mouth shut and intentionally angering him.

'Grrghhhh! Then I shall bend you to my will. Whether you like it or not!' Mister Negative angrily roared that he unsheathes a Chinese Guan Dao (a Chinese glaive).

'Try me, buddy!' Spider-man spoke his mind out loud and taunts with a wave—literally within his own mind.

Another fight ensues within, with Spider-man struggling to fend off Mister Negative's brainwashing, facing off against a wave of creepy illusory demons from the dark and light energy that he creates in his mental plane.

'Well, this is gonna take a lot longer than I thought,' Spider-man nervously thought out loud in annoyance internally again.

"I'm gonna squash you all into pancakes!" Rhino roared, easily smashing the ground like whack-a-mole, trying to pulverize Prowler but ignoring the fact he's hurting his allied masked henchmen.

"Still couldn't squish me though!" Prowler quipped as he hops and vaults over the henchmen as obstructing dummies for the Rhino before unveiling his new merged tech: his Hornet Pack.

From his back, four transparent glowing wings emerge from the pack and enable him to quickly hover off the ground and instead aim for the Vulture by firing stinger plasma blasts at his wings, causing his flight tech to malfunction and crash right at Rhino's face as he fails to catch him.

"Hmph, well that was too easy," Prowler thought, not noticing the flighting metal table that struck and startled him off his stability, forcing him to land after the pain. "I take that back, that hurts."

"Foolish, kids!" Jackal growls before pulling out a plasma pistol from its holster and desperately fires at the heroes, especially Iceman as he blocks the shot with a wall of ice before aiming and shooting for Human Torch.

"Whoa boy!" Human Torch dodges a plasma bullet but has to forcefully land to the ground and attack back with a spray of his flamethrower.

"Man, these guys are tough!" Liz cried, trying to intimidate or maim some of the masked men and trying to avoid Hammerhead before accidentally burning a part of his face. "Oh gosh—I'm sorry! I didn't mean to—!"

However, what was left from Hammerhead's burn revealed a horrific inhuman secret. The burn inflicted right at his face didn't faze him as his face and forehead appeared to be made of some sort of fireproof metal like the result from a painful skull replacement procedure. This made the flat-topped thug all the more furious and fuming with steaming anger from experiencing the pain and humiliation he had to deal with from his new crazy crime boss.

"Oh. My. Gosh— whoa!" Liz exclaimed as she barely dodged his grip and no longer held back with her firepower, burning away his business suit and revealing parts of his upper body clad in riveted steel. "Wwwow, this just took the creepo factor to a whole 'nother level! Yipe!"

"Man, Hammy! You guys sure have it tough!" Prowler quipped as he fired a rain of stinger blasts at Rhino and Stegron, accompanied by Human Torch's fireballs.

"Dangit, man! How much longer is Spidey gonna be out!?" Human Torch hysterically exclaimed, noticing that MIster Negative has him pinned down to the ground.

"Oh! I got 'im!" Shadowcat eagerly replied after phasing Vulture and his flight tech to the wall before running over to assist Spider-man.

Despite the risk of breaking the mental chain, Shadowcat forcefully gets Mister Negative away from Spider-man with a swift flying kick, which made Spidey jolt and jerk uncontrollably after being forcibly freed from the Negative's brainwashing.

"Wh-Whoa-wuh!? Wh-What happened!?" Spider-man exclaimed in shock with shaking hands until Shadowcat grips them as hard as she can to wake him up.

"Spidey! Snap out of it! You're gonna be fine!" Shadowcat tries to make him focus on her voice with an assuring tone.

"Ohhhh, oghhhh, man that was trippy!" Spider-man responded, suddenly becoming conscious of Shadowcat sitting on his lap. "Thanks for the hand, but I honestly got that covered."

"C'mon! We're winning this! We just gotta push harder!" Shadowcat assured, helping him get up back on his feet.

"Heheheheh, you guys have no idea…" Mister Negative trailed off with a smug look on his face.

"Say what?" Both Spider-man and Shadowcat wondered with skepticism.

"Eddie! What are you doing!? Ow!"

Appearing by the door with the distressed Dr. Kafka in a firm grip around her shoulder was Eddie, acting really strange for some reason, especially the fact that he is exposing both himself and the doctor in danger.

"No—Eddie! What are you—!?"

"Come now, Brock. Bring her to me," Mister Negative slyly orders.

"Yes, master," Eddie responded in a zombielike tone, slowly walking over to him amidst the room of shocked heroes and villains.

"Whoa, what happened to that guy?" Rhino asked in horror, seeing the strange look in Eddie's blank white unblinking eyes.

"M-Mr. Li! What did you do to him!?" Ashley angrily demanded, struggling to break free from his grasp.

"Rest assured, doctor. I promise you that no harm will come to him, as long as you follow my conditions," Mister Negative assured.

"As if!" Shadowcat shrieked and ran to tackle him.

"Shadowcat, wait—!"

But before Spidey could warn her, Mister Negative pushes her back into his arms with a concussive blast combining his dark and light forces of energy.

"Ughhh, that stings…" Shadowcat groaned.

"Please! Stop! I'll do what you ask, I promise! Just… Please stop all this and let everyone else go!" Ashley pleaded.

"Doc, that does not sound like a good idea," Spider-man deadpanned.

"Really now?" Mister Negative slyly asks for clarification, cracking an eager grin.

"Yes. I'm… I'm yours now. Just, please, cure Eddie! Cure him first!" Ashley begged with tears in her eyes.

"Geez, I really wonder what you see in that guy," Mister Negative shook his head before motioning Eddie to release her from his grasp.

As Dr. Kafka falls out of Eddie's loosened arm and gasps for some air, she suddenly sees Mister Negative point his hand like a gun towards Eddie, anxiously puzzling her eyes before she quickly catches on. However, Mister Negative's finger gun was faster before anyone could react, shooting a bullet of white energy at Eddie and sedating him down to the floor, all the while slowly releasing the mental hold over his mind.

"Eddie!" Both Spider-man and Ashley exclaimed in horror.

"Now then, onto business… doctor…!" Mister Negative smirked.

'What? Where am I?'

Eddie succumbs and enters his own consciousness again, the area clouded by a mist of dark and light energy and forming a barrier— a prison in his mind.

'Eeeeddieeeeee… Brooooock'

Suddenly, a familiar presence appears from the corner of his mind. It was a piece of the symbiote that was thought to have burnt away from a long time ago, a process where it should have died out.

'Y-You! No, you were supposed to be dead!' Eddie exclaimed.

'And dead I shall be. What is left of me, Eddie, I leave a parting gift to you,' the symbiote eerily replied in his mind, slowly seeming to die as its usual black color slowly transforms into a white hue.

'Wait, no! Please!' Eddie called out to it before having his body enveloped by a new form of the white-colored symbiote. 'Wh-What is this!?'

"Quite the deplorable scene, isn't that right, doctor?" Mister Negative snickered.

"Mr. Li, is this your true self…? Your true colors?" Ashley asked, biting her lip in fear of angering him.

"Like day and night, and the Yin and Yang. Both of them ARE my true colors," Mister Negative assured.

"Then you must know that this evil side of yours, is totally wrong! Stop this madness, before it's—!"

"Bah! Such a chattery little creature. But, I suppose that is natural, knowing that you're the one taking care of some of my greatest creations," Jackal grinned menacingly while inspecting and flicking at a clean syringe, walking up to Spider-man being restrained by Stegron and Rhino before jabbing his arm and taking a blood sample out of him.

"Youch! I just had a booster shot on that arm too!" Spider-man yelped from the pain.

"Spidey!" Liz and Ghost Spider exclaimed, blocked by Vulture and Scorpion with a tail and talons bared.

"Your blood will be an exquisite specimen for study. I hope you don't mind if I "appropriate" it for a time being," Jackal hissed with a grin.

"Sheeesh, no wonder you got kicked out of ESU. You're completely nuts," Spider-man deadpanned before taking a punch to his armored face.

"I may not know who told you that, nor do I care why you know, but mind your manners, Spider—boy," Jackal pats dust off his knuckle with his coat.

"Now then, where were we? Guh—oof!"

"Yeah, Martin. Where. Were. WE!"

Suddenly, a huge clawed white hand catches Mister Negative into his giant grasp, pulling him close to the owner from the now reawakened Eddie, slowly standing up with a whole new symbiote to boot that envelops his body like his previous symbiote, except…something's awfully more different…

"Missed me…Martin!?" Eddie hissed, slowly towering over him.

"What!? H-How!?" Mister Negative stammered in shock.

"Eddie…!?" Spider-man looked over in fear.

He tosses the monochromatic mob boss to the wall, making his subordinates panic and abandon their posts to focus their attacks on Eddie.

"Dieee! Guaghk!" Stegron gets caught by the neck with a clawed white grip.

"Nooo!" Vulture screamed, only to have his body roughly pinned to the wall by a strong white tendril, followed by Tarantula and several of the masked henchmen being pinned around the sides of the room.

There the other baddies stood down or rushed out of the room like the Rhino, who panicked and crashed through the wall to run away, followed by the Scorpion with his tail tucked between his legs. The Jackal on the other hand, simply shielded himself with Hammerhead to take a tendril thrash before slipping away with a secret passage he created for himself in the wall.

"I'm not stayin' to get manhandled like this! I'm out!" Scorpion barked as he ran away in fear.

"You guys are a stinkin' pestilence! A disease that needs to be eradicated! A living cancer!" Eddie roared, letting the symbiote wear over his face with a black creepy mask and yellow eyes filled with a righteous kind of fury and an eerily monstrous voice. "But this time, I AM THE CURE! I. AM. ANTI-VENOM!"

Suddenly, his symbiote absorbs the mutated tarantula genes in Tarantula, the dino DNA in Stegron, and sobers up the masked men out of Mister Negative's mind-control; turning them back to normal or returning them back into their senses unconscious for the moment. With everyone else dazed in awe, Ashley quickly takes this chance to run out of the room and find a way to call the police.

"Whoa! Nice going Ed!" Spider-man cheered before being grabbed himself and pulled up close to Anti-Venom's scowling monstrous face. "Kitty! Protect the doctor!"

"I got her covered!" Shadowcat replies as she lets Spidey boost her up to the ceiling and phases through it to take a shortcut.

"You…you were the main catalyst to everyone's problems. You were the cause of all this! But, out of an old bond and sympathy, let me help you free yourself from all this pain…!" Anti-Venom hissed, using his symbiotic ability to heal and cure Spider-man of the radiation in his body from that accursed spider bite.

"Gaaaagh!" Spider-man screams in agony from a sensation similar to anesthesia—somewhat ironic— before headbutting him and breaking away with two backflips to create some distance, enduring the pain until he fell on one knee.

"Spidey! Yikes! Eddie! Stop!" Ghost Spider cried, dodging Anti-Venom's tendrils or parrying them with her own symbiotic arsenal of modified appendages.

"Gwen! It's okay! I can cure you! I can help you! There's no need for this pointless fight!" Anti-Venom urged, trying to hit and pin Ghost Spider before being blasted by two fiery streams from Human Torch and Liz, but unfazed from the flames until Iceman manages to annoy him with an ice beam.

"Uhhh, Spidey!? Isn't he supposed to be weak to fire!?" Prowler screamed, throwing a few gas bombs at Anti-Venom, still standing and not flinching from their attacks.

"Try a high-pitched sonic blast or something!?" Spider-man suggests.

With that, Prowler pulls out a homemade sonic gun that amplifies a certain wavelength, a precautionary measure after Spider-man suggests its usefulness against certain characters. However, after pulling the trigger, it fires a blast of sonic waves towards Anti-Venom but it does not affect him as he still doesn't even flinch while Ghost Spider is apparently so affected by the blast that it makes her cringe in pain.

"Shoot—sorry!" Prowler apologizes before being caught and pinned to the floor by a tendril. "Oghhhh, roadkill…!"

With haste, Ashley makes it outside of the hidden underground base and is somewhere close to the surface before reaching the cafeteria and sees May Parker holding the quiet line in the barren room. She quickly dials 911 on her phone

"Oh! May I help you, dear?" Aunt May kindly asks after setting down a tray of food on the steaming table.

"Do you have a phone?! Please call the police!" Ashley begged.

"Wh-What's going on? Wait, Peter, he—!?"

"What's going on?" Joey, the security guard asked.

"Something's going on down there! We need to call the police or—"

"Relax, doc," Joey slyly assured.

"Relax? Relax!? How could I—!?"

"Just calm down, doc. It's gonna be fine," Joey assured, suddenly showing a glare with a white fire in his eyes.

"No, you're one of them!" Ashley exclaimed, taking one of the steel trays to whack him with, only to be stopped by May.

"Stop! What are you gonna do to Joey!?" Aunt May asked in protest, trying to protect the brainwashed Joey.

"Watch out!" Ashley warned, shoving the metal tray onto Joey and then taking May by the hand to escape into the pantry.

"Eddie! Please! Stop! It doesn't have to be this way!" Ghost Spider pleaded, blocking against his tendrils with a solid webbed shield.

Now with Iceman, Prowler and Human Torch down for the count from Anti-Venom's thrashing, Spidey, Ghost Spider, Liz have yet to even take him down without getting affected by whatever his new symbiote could do to them, aside from being able to cure people's impurities and conditions.

"I'm not sure if that's going to work now, Gwen!" Liz exclaimed as she hurled balls of fire at Anti-Venom, just to annoy him.

"Liz Allan, do you not see!? I can cure you! I can help you! I can make you normal again!" Anti-Venom angrily assured while trying to grab her with a tendril as she hovers around the room.

"Thanks, but no thanks, you gooey quack!" Liz screamed while avoiding the tendrils. "I'm fine with myself as is!"

"You heard the lady, bro!" Spider-man roared as he slingshot himself at him with an arrow-pointing heel kick to his gut and pushed him back a few inches before dodging spikes that instantly erupt from around his body like a blowfish. "Just give it up, man! We don't wanna do this all day!"

"Never! You are the disease! I am the cure to that disease! Please! I can truly help you!" Anti-Venom sincerely offers his power to the usually troubled hero.

"If you truly wanna help, then help others! 'Cause I don't need it!" Spider-man plainly replied back, landing a few punches to his face before being smacked back by the back of Anti-Venom's huge fist.

"I will! And it will start with you!" Anti-Venom roared, lunging towards him with diamond-pointed talons bare.

"Nowhere to run, May. Trust me, don't let that woman deceive you."

Minutes went by, and both Ashley and May are cornered in a kitchen that's reduced to a mess with knocked out workers because of Joey's enormous overpowering strength, thanks to the brainwashing of Mister Negative's dark force.

"Joey! Wake up! You are not a killer! Not a thug!" Aunt May pleaded while being frightened along with Dr. Kafka.

"I apologize, ma'am, but you must step aside, and I promise to help you," Joey slyly assured in an unfamiliar tone.

"No! I won't!" Aunt May replied in protest and turned to Dr. Kafka. "Dear, please call the police! I can buy you time!"

"I can take this!"

Suddenly, Shadowcat's head pops out phasing from the floor before phasing out entirely in between the two ladies and the brainwashed officer.

"Who-Who are you!?" Aunt May exclaimed in shock, having watched her pop out and appear from the floor like a ghost.

"Don't worry! I'm with Spider-man, and I'm on your side!" Shadowcat assured, facing off with Joey. "Sure wish Pete could take a picture of this! Hiyah!"

"Wait, Peter? You know my nephew!?" Aunt May exclaimed in shock, watching her kick Joey in the gut and take him down with an aikido throw that grabs him by the head with her heels.

"Now… Spider-man… my old friend… what do you say—that I spare you from all the trouble that mask holds on you…"

Even after putting up a fight, both Ghost Spider and Liz are also knocked out, and Spider-man's been caught by the neck, all bruised and battered in his cracked Spider-armor Mk1.5.

"I promise you that it won't hurt. It will be painless, and quick," Anti-Venom menacingly assured.

"...Oh yeah? Ughugh! You sound like you're gonna kill me," Spider-man coughed.

"Joke all you want, brooo. I'm doing this as a favor, for you, and your friends that you've contaminated with all your costumed nonsense…!" Anti-Venom growled before proceeding to erase the radiation in his body that fuels his spider-themed powers.

"Urgh, gaghugh! Gaaagh!" Spider-man groans, unable to fight back while feeling something that's slowly being taken away from inside his body.

"Petey…no…" Liz groaned, trying to fire at Anti-Venom but fainted before being able to fight back.

"That's enough!"

From the side, a beam of dark energy separates the white giant from the downed hero, fired by an angry monochromatic mob boss, Mister Negative, who has regained his consciousness after the embarrassing beating he's been dealt with.

"Ughhh, I can't believe I'm saying this, but… wanna partner up?" Spider-man groggily suggests.

"For once—just. This. Once," Mister Negative straightforwardly replied, taking a broken pipe and imbuing it with a mixture of dark and light energy like a magical weapon.

"Grrrrgh, MARTIIIIN!" Anti-Venom roared, facing off against both Spider-man and Mister Negative.

Because of some opposite attraction between the light force inside Anti-Venom and the dark force emanating within Mister Negative, their attacks repel each other with every talon and tendril parried by a pipe, giving Spider-man a chance to help land blows and exchange web shots at him until a tendril grabs him by the foot. Anti-Venom then throws him around like a ragdoll and uses him to whack his black-and-white rival to the wall before lifting Spider-man upside down, staring straight into his eyes.

"You should've taken my offer instead of siding with that monster," Anti-Venom growled.

"Bro, ever looked in a mirror yet?" Spider-man teased before feeling the tendril strangulate his leg tighter. "Owwww owowowow!"

*BANG! BANG!* *CHCK!*

"Whoa!" Spider-man yelped as the tendril dissipates from the bullet that shot through and lets him fall into a pile of rubble.

"Freeze! On the ground!"

And again, before Anti-Venom relishes in his self-righteous revenge, the five members of "New York's Finest" have arrived on the scene, one being a sharpshooting cadet who fired her gun and the others being veterans in dealing with Spider-man's troubles and cleaning up after him. Standing behind them were Ashley Kafka and Shadowcat.

"Oh, hey officers! You sure took your time," Spider-man joked before trying to get back up.

"Spider-man, of course you'd be involved. I ask you and your friends to stand down and let us handle things from here on out," Jean orders with her gun pointed, armed and ready to fire.

"Sure, all yours," Spider-man shrugs his shoulders and raises his arms.

Upon noticing Dr. Kafka, Anti-Venom glanced at his sharp talons and instead stood down by retracting his claws and letting the symbiote dissipate into his body before raising his hands up. Dr. Kafka runs out to him without hesitation and embraces him out of concern, without regard for the police's warning.

"Hey doc. I uh—I'm sorry for… everything…" Eddie heartfully apologizes.

"You were not the one at fault. I forgive you," Ashley forgave him, smiling back at him.

"Dr. Kafka, you say the perpetrator's here?" Jean wonders while letting the three other officers arrest the incapacitated villains or tend to the injured friends in Spidey's team.

"The mastermind—is over there," Ashley pointed towards Mister Negative, who was slowly getting back up.

"Wait, Mr. Li? Sir? Is that you?" Jean kindly asked for clarification.

"Ughhh, hmph. Well well well, seems like the jig is up," Mister Negative scoffed and chuckled, reverting back into his normal appearance and putting his hands up.

"Mr. Li, you are under arrest for attempted abduction and suspect of being involved with a crime syndicate," Jean sternly ordered, taking out a pair of handcuffs.

"Don't worry, officer. I won't leave anytime soon," Martin chuckled, letting her cuff his hands together from the back.

While she's dealing with him, Spider-man swings over to meet with the officers lending their aid or arresting the Vulture, Tarantula, and Stegron that were knocked out or cured out of their insane wits, along with some of the unconscious masked men. One among the dispatched police members is a young cadette who removed her cap, wearing a ponytail and some glasses, helping Prowler with removing his gauntlet to expose his bruised up arm.

"Hey, thanks for the save. I was close to having my face bitten off if it weren't for you," Spider-man joked while helping Liz stand up.

"Oh! It's nothing! Though I might get scolded for shooting without warning," the brunette cadet nervously replied.

"Well, just gotta say, you have eagle eyes to not shoot me from that distance," Spider-man teased.

"Th-Thanks. I was close to hitting your leg with a graze or more though, so don't count on my shooting," the cadette confesses and shakes his hand before noticing her colleague waving at her to come to him to help handle the Vulture's broken wings. "I gotta go. It's been nice knowing you!"

"Wait, but I— huh?" Spider-man paused as he noticed a paper stuck to his hand, opening it to reveal her name: Carlie Cooper XXXXXXXX. "Wow, clever."

"Spidey, just what do you think you're smiling at?" Liz deadpanned, giving him "the look" after startling him with her question.

"Gah—n-nothing!" Spider-man quickly lied, slipping the note into his sleeve.

"...And so he's done it again…"

Fast forward from the incident in the FEAST facility, news came around in a matter of hours, thanks to some pictures Peter took and the simplified straightforward article written by the intern journalist, Gloria "Glory" Grant. The heroes have left the scene, but Peter, Hobie, and Gwen had to stick around for a bit, being few of the supposed witnesses of the uncovering of the Inner Demons' den.

In a base located underwater, the mysterious Crime Master of Manhattan has apparently taken interest in the news while working on his personal projects in a brightly lit laboratory.

"I wonder if he will listen to me… with a little persuasion. Am I right, boys?" The Crime Master quipped, setting down the touchscreen device.

From the sidelines, a lineup of three assorted hoodlums and thugs, one is wearing armor that comes with a bubble helmet and a gas tank that's connected to arm-mounted flamethrowers; another has an 8-ball billiards ball for a head while clad in a tight black suit. Both on standby and ready upon his command, another among them is the Menace, the Grey Goblin that he broke out of prison not long ago.

"Do what you have to do. I have sent the coordinates to our friend Octavius. I am sure you all will be cooperative in your missions?" The Crime Master asks for clarification.

"Sir yessir! Anything for you, sir!" says the guy with an 8-ball for a head.

"Hey, ain't there supposed to be four of us? Where izze?" says the man in the fiery armor.

"Sorry I'm late."

Coming through the automatic sliding door was the fearless rookie villain wannabe, the New Goblin, reluctantly taking the call of the Crime Master after having been told that his girlfriend Lily, aka the Grey Goblin, is in his hands.

"Welcome, now we can get things started. Head down to the briefing room just behind that door. Everything will be shown by Octavius," Crime Master assured.

But New Goblin didn't pay any mind to him as his eyes were focused at Menace, filled with concern and anxiety and tries to silently reach out to her, only to receive a snarling growl in return.

'...I'm sorry…' New Goblin muttered under his breath, scowling in shame with a tight fist full of rage before walking into the other room with the rest.

'Don't disappoint me…son…' The Crime Master glared at the New Goblin with disdain on his way with the door closing.

Few hours later, in the Allan's home, where Liz decided to lay low again after managing to dodge from the public eyes, thanks to Shadowcat's sneaking phasing abilities, thinking that it'd be best to stay away from the dorms at the moment.

"Agh—tsss! Man, this stinks…!" Liz sighed while lying across her sofa in a long-sleeved shirt and dolphin shorts, feeling the aching sores on her arm and legs from the rough thrashing done to her by Anti-Venom. "Things could not possibly get any worse than this…!"

Right after that jinxing quote, there was a knock on her balcony door, late at night of all times. She begrudgingly gets up on limp legs to go open the door, but instead a blast forcefully opens the door, revealing an intruder, the nefarious New Goblin atop his glider.

"Whoa what the— seriously!? Again with my door!?" Liz angrily screamed that her flames ignited all over unconsciously, charring her clothes with her fiery rage.

"I got no choice," New Goblin growled as he pointed his gauntlet at her and sprayed out fire extinguishing foam that easily put out her flames.

"Pffttoo! Ewww, this is gross!" Liz spat in disgust before a pumpkin bomb explodes and hurls a cloud of knockout gas at her, incapacitating her from being able to fight back. "U-Unnnnnh…"

"I'm sorry…for Lily…" New Goblin begs for forgiveness and carries her away in a princess carry before flying out into the night the moment her parents and Mark could've stopped him.

—To be continued


A/N: Whoo! YEAH! Almost finished with the fourth season! Hope you guys somehow enjoy reading this!

I'll try to finish the last episode as early as possible while dealing with summer classes. Wait for bigger things in the future.

FYI, the XXXXX thing back there is like a random phone number, btw, just hard to come up with one for me ngl. XD

Anyways, thanks for reading this episode, get ready for the finale, and God bless! Take care out there guys!