Elsa lay limp in the chair, her head tilted forward. She was alive, Emma hadn't fried her brain or anything. But she was unconscious.
"Will she wake up anytime soon?" Felix asked quickly.
Emma's response was a grunt. She swayed in Felix's arms, her forehead visibly veiny from the psychic strain.
On the largest monitor, the feed snapped back on. Felix's jaw clenched when he saw Nick Fury's face.
"Doctor Brock!" his voice thundered through the speakers. "Answer the question. What is the black Symbiote's weakness?"
Behind Fury's image, smaller live feeds flashed in frantic succession—Midtown streets cratered and smoking, emergency vehicles overturned, and then—
Captain America—Samantha Wilson, his friend—her vibranium shield blocking a punch and being hurled bodily through the side of a building. She was swallowed in dust and debris.
The camera shook violently. Rash-Hulk's roar distorted the audio feed even from blocks away.
Director Fury barked again, louder. "Brock! If you know something, now would be the time!"
His Spider-Sense went off. Herbie alerted him that SHIELD agents were going to stomp inside. As for the guards already here, they were standing still and inactive. Emma said they'd be out for fifteen minutes.
'If we're going to seem like ghosts…!'
He jumped to the central console, Emma in one arm. Nanotech flowed down his free arm, the index finger reshaping into a thin USB. Power of nanobots, baby. He drove it straight into the main terminal.
Herbie flooded the system instantly.
"OVERRIDING S.H.I.E.L.D. SECURITY PROTOCOLS," came the announcement from the computers. Felix smiled.
The monitors glitched and Fury's image fractured into digital noise.
"What's going on? Doctor? Brock? Elsa—!?"
The audio cut. Felix's visor became filled with cascading lines of code as he tunneled through encrypted channels, severing uplinks, scrambling outgoing signals, and ultimately ordering those SHIELD agents about to storm in to turn around. That it was a false emergency.
Herbie had copied Fury's voice after all.
"COMMUNICATIONS TERMINATED," Herbie confirmed.
Every screen went black. The room fell silent. Felix yanked the interface free and turned just in time to catch Emma's eyes fluttering.
"Nggh. L-like I said, they'll wake up without even realizing anything happen. A-a psychic plant," Emma murmured.
"Easy," he replied.
Emma pressed her palm to her temple. "I'm not easy, I'm fine." She managed a tight huff of breath that almost passed for a laugh. He didn't believe her faux confidence.
He lifted her carefully, sweeping her into his arms.
The eight web-strung agents remained upright and unconscious, grotesque mannequins in tactical gear. According to the time, the memory analysis took five minutes. In ten minutes, they would tell Nick Fury that nothing happened. And as much as he would suspect Emma, he couldn't. Not when the security cameras declared that she had been in her room.
He turned invisible and carried her back to the VIP room. He encountered the SHIELD agents that were supposed to check out what was happening to Elsa. They were slow. Probably because they weren't field agents.
Entering the panoramic VIP room, he set her down on the black couch. Emma heaved, blinking slowly, trying to wake herself up.
"Really strained you, huh? My apologies."
"If we had more time, then…"
But they didn't. He told her five minutes was all he could afford. Felix's mind was already strong and adding a time limit on top of that was adding to the strain. "Thank you, Emma, really."
The all-white Emma snorted. "I know you do."
Spider-Man turned. Another transmission from Herbie:
"GWEN STACY IS IN TRANSIT VIA SHIELD HELICOPTER. DESTINATION: CLASSIFIED UNDERWATER DETENTION FACILITY, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA."
His heart stopped. They were taking her there. To the prison that was nearly impossible to infiltrate. To where they had always planned to take them.
No, no, no!
"Gwen was defeated? By SHIELD? I don't…I don't believe it…!"
"LARGE IN PART BECAUSE OF RASH-HULK. CURRENTLY, CAPTAIN AMERICA IS DEALING WITH HER."
Shit, he should have acted right when he heard the news. He was maybe hoping Samantha was teaming up with Gwen but…
"But she's not. Gwen is being dragged away."
A map flared across his vision. Felix and the SHIELD Helicarrier hovered near Ryker's Island while Rash-Hulk was in New York. The battle was still going. Yet, to contrast that priority was the label of Gwen Stacy. The previous Spider was rapidly going south, already near the border of the city.
"ACCORDING TO SHIELD, CAPTAIN AMERICA'S VITALS ARE WEAKENING," Herbie added. "RASH-HULK CONTINUES ENGAGEMENT."
"Samantha…!" Felix closed his eyes, breathing shakily.
If Gwen reached that prison…
He had gone to that prison. All that was left for Gwen there was isolation, dissection, and endless containment. Especially after what had already happened.
Even if he could save her afterward, it might be too late. Gwen might never come back out the same.
But if he left New York—
'Rash won't stop. He's going to chase Gwen. But…'
Dammit, dammit, he couldn't predict what Rash would do. SHIELD could still discover water was his weakness. Rash could also lose control completely. Maybe even try and chase Gwen and the helicopter into the ocean and die pointlessly.
Too many possibilities. But ultimately, there were two choices here:
"Save Gwen…or stop Rash and save Samantha…"
His chest tightened. Rash had once been his Symbiote and Samantha was his bodyguard. The superhero of this world. If she died…
He couldn't even finish that thought. But he opened his eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said to Gwen. "Please, just…hold on."
His suit shimmered and light around him until his form dissolved into empty air. He jumped and entered the sealed hatch he had come from earlier. Crawling through vents, across hallways, in three minutes, he was on the surface.
The wind from the Helicarrier's rotors roared around him. A team of fighter jets were being prepared to fight Rash-Hulk and assist Captain America.
Thwip!
Still invisible, nobody knowing he was ever here, he leapt and joined the fighter jets.
He apologised to Gwen again. He knew her situation, her history, her pain. He knew what this could mean to her. But…his friends were in trouble.
***
The street was a canyon of smoke and shattered glass.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
Terrifying. Truly terrifying. Could there be anything more terrifying than a massive, wrong thing like Rash-Hulk? Black veins pulsing across green muscle like oil beneath skin and eyes white and shaped curved and alien. Rash-Hulk was not completely covered in black anymore. He was weak.
The streets shook anyway.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
Trudged up from the building, Captain America was on her feet. When Rash-Hulk tried to move away, to chase the helicopter, her shield hit where it hurt. And every time she did that, Rash-Hulk roared and attacked her.
Blood ran from her brow, cutting through the dust on her face. She smiled anyway, even though her left leg was broken.
Rash-Hulk charged and charged. THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! Rash-Hulk was getting closer, a natural disaster.
Samantha lifted the shield. It was the only act she could do—tank the punches. "I can do this all day—"
The punch came down like a meteor. She closed her eyes, bracing for impact for the tenth time.
Except it never came.
Samantha opened her eyes to see a sleek red figure in front of her.
BAM!
The shockwave still blew out nearby windows, but Samantha was saved from due to her shield. The man in front of her had done the impossible.
Rash-Hulk recoiled back in disbelief. Samantha did too.
"S-Spider-Man…!" Samantha called out.
One foot dug into cracked pavement, arm locked upward, Spider-Man protected her. She couldn't believe it. She was aware that he thought himself a hero but…she had also ambushed him with SHIELD behind her. She failed which frankly made it worse.
"You…you need to…"
Rash-Hulk yanked back. Spider-Man dropped down and slammed both feet into the creature's abdomen.
Rash-Hulk flew. Not stumbled. Flew. He smashed through a bus, tore through scaffolding, and landed on the roof of a moving elevated train two blocks down.
The train screeched under the sudden weight.
Spider-Man looked over his shoulder at Captain America and she swore he nodded. Then he leapt and chased. Thwip, thwip!
The wind howled across the train roof. Rash-Hulk rose as the cars rattled along the tracks, metal buckling beneath his feet. He grinned, teeth too sharp.
Spider-Man landed opposite him, knees bending with the train's sway.
"Rash!" Spider-Man called out, knowing the wind would block anyone else from hearing. "You don't need to do this! Let's stop before—"
Rash was running at him. His Spider-Sense didn't say a thing, it was jarring. Then he realized his mistake.
BAM!
Spider-Sense didn't work on Rash.
A fist slammed into Spider-Man's ribs. He flew the length of the car, skidding, fingers gouging trenches into steel before he caught himself. He coughed up blood.
Rash-Hulk announced, "NO WARNING. NO INSTINCT. WE KNOW YOU. WE LOVE YOU."
Right. 'That's why you left. To protect me and to kill Gwen.'
This time, Spider-Man wasn't going to be caught off-guard. They charged at each other and collided again. Their strength was even, except Rash-Hulk was larger. Physics and weight classes still applied. Spider-Man ducked, pivoted, countered—three hits to the ribs, elbow to the jaw. Rash absorbed it and answered with a headbutt that sent Spider-Man back. He landed again and realized he was at the edge of the train.
WHOOOSH!
VROOOM!
The world darkened. They were underground now. If these had been the subway tunnels of old, Rash-Hulk wouldn't have fit. But because of the reconstruction following Creature Z, he did. Rash-Hulk camouflaged phenomenally.
Step, step, step. Creak, creak, creak, creeeeak!
Rash-Hulk tried to be smart and all stealthy, but it didn't and couldn't work. The train ceiling was denting. Felix could hear the passengers underneath screaming. They were afraid. They knew there was a monster above.
"Rash, you're not a monster! Come on!"
Rash-Hulk stopped.
Thwip, thwip!
Spider-Man did a hail marry. No Spider-Sense made this a huge gamble. He attached two lines of webbing and electrocuted Rash-Hulk with black lightning. Then—ziiiip! He rammed into him.
"Gah!"
Except then Rash grabbed his leg. He struck a foot at his face but all it did was piss him off and squeeze his leg harder.
Snap!
Felix gasped. He…he snapped his ankle! Growling in agony, his leg struck again, harder and angrier, and this time Rash-Hulk stumbled back. The massive creature hit the side of the subway tunnel and sparks flew. A shriek was let out. Spider-Man slammed his leg in and Rash-Hulk grinded against the wall for seconds, shrieking from the sparks, and lost his footing entirely. Spider-Man's ankle was kept in his grip until they tumbled off the train.
The roar of the train faded into the echoing dark of the subway tunnel.
They were alone. They lay there a moment in the dust and both started to rise. They healed fast afterall. A broken ankle? It was an inconvenience he would have to push through.
Rash-Hulk ran his hand on his face. The Hulk's green face could be seen. The liquidy Symbiote was taking a while to heal. Felix got the feeling his reflexes would be slowed.
They could keep going. They both knew it.
"There's no point."
Rash tilted his head.
"You're forcing this," Felix said, breathing hard. "You're not a fighter or an assassin, Rash."
"WE ARE."
"You're a hunter. There's a difference. Hunters do what is needed. They don't pick out fights and targets."
"GWEN STACY," Rash growled, the name twisting, "IS THE SYMBIOTE KILLER. SHE MUST BE HUNTED."
"She needs to be saved."
"THE SCARLET SYMBIOTE KILLS US. IT IS IN HER NATURE!"
"She's scared!"
"SHE IS A THREAT!!!"
Felix stepped closer instead of back. His ankle was almost fully healed. "You told me that's why you merged with Hulk. To get strong enough to kill her."
Rash's lip curled. His own mask was about to fully return. To become a venomous monster. "YES."
Silence settled in the tunnel.
"I feel like we know each other," he said quietly. "We know what we like. What food we crave. The rush we get from swinging. But what do we dream about? What do we actually want? We never talked about that."
"SO….? WE LOVE YOU. WE LOVE YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY. WE LOVE EACH OTHER. THAT IS WHAT MATTERS."
Like a rash child. Hah. Felix's mask came down. He smiled. "Do you like to fight?"
"YES…."
"And why do you fight?"
Rash-Hulk's chest heaved. "BECAUSE OF YOUUU…! BECAUSE YOU LOVE BEING A HERO. WE LOVE BEING A HERO."
"Yeah," he admitted. "I do."
"HEROES FIGHT. HEROES WIN. HEROES DESTROY THREATS."
"No," Felix said. "Heroes save people."
"SOMETIMESSSS. YES, SOMETIMES. BUT HEROES ARE STRONG. HEROES KILL MONSTERS. LIKE THE LIZARD. LIKE HAMMERHEAD. GWEN STACY IS ONE TOO. I SMELL IT FROM HER. SHE HAS KILLED MAAANY."
"But I think we should help her despite that."
"DESPITE…THAT? WHY? WHY? KILLING AND TORTURING, YOU DO IT FOR THE GREATER GOOD. THIS IS FOR THE GREATER GOOD."
"I did and that was…" Felix said it with full sincerity. "A mistake. I should have just asked them to help me, even if it meant risking getting caught."
"BUT…WHERE'S THE LOGIC? I DON'T UNDERSTAND…"
"Rash, you learn from me everyday. You took over the Hulk because of the greater good, because it was more efficient to kill her."
"YESSSS…"
"Why not be friends with her?"
"FRIENDS…?"
He stepped close enough that Rash could've attacked him. The monster did not.
"What separates us from the villains isn't power. It's belief. The belief that tomorrow can be better. That people can be better." He extended. "I need you to believe that with me."
Rash's expression twisted. "I…DO NOT UNDERSTAND. I KNEW YOU WOULD WANT GWEN STACY TO LIVE. BUT…"
"I want to be friends, yes."
"THIS IS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED. WHHHYYY? IS HER LOOKS? IS IT SEX?"
"No. I just want her to live and be happy."
"SHE IS NOT A HERO ANYMORE! SHE IS NOT! SHE WILL KILL US!"
Felix shook his head. "She could, maybe. But I believe she won't. I've…seen her past. I know she doesn't want to hurt us."
"BUT AS LONG AS SHE IS ALIVE, WE WILL NEVER BE THE STRONGEST. WE WILL NEVER BE SAFE. I COULD FEEL HER SOUL—SHE IS UNSTABLE. SHE WILL KILL."
"Maybe, maybe not. A hero should be able to risk their lives to save someone."
"GWEN—"
"—is not your prey."
"SHE WILL KILL US!!!"
Rash-Hulk's scream echoed through the tunnel. Felix was not intimidated at all.
"Then we help her not to."
Rash staggered back as if struck. The white in his eyes flickered.
"WHY ARE YOU SO…OPTIMISTIC? THIS IS NEW…! THIS IS…HAVE YOU GIVEN UP ON EVERYTHING YOU ARE! ON KILLING!?"
Felix gave a small smile. "I never said that. I don't regret killing Crossbones. He deserved to die."
"SO WHAT IS YOUR ANSWER?"
"It's about choice. I…I don't ever want to fall so dark that I'm torturing people again. If I have no choice but to kill, I will. And I know I'm never going to be perfect about it. I don't have all the answers. But taking short-cuts like that to be perfect? To torture? To…to stop sleeping. To maybe even stop needing to eat. Watching everything and everyone at all times. Where is the heart in that? Where is the belief in good?"
"..."
"So, I've decided." He smiled and extended a hand. "Let's go backpacking after all this."
"V….ACATION?"
"Mhm! Let's spend the whole summer travelling the world. It'll be me, you, Rio, and, hell, we can bring Miles too."
"DOING WHAT?"
"Eating, hanging out, and sight-seeing—with just the bags we have on us. With no Herbie either. No tech to cheat and find out everything. Just…experience the good in our life, you know? We don't always have to be fixing and fixing. I think that anxiety, that need to constantly make the world better and perfect, it got to me and it got to you. But it doesn't have. We don't have to have all the answers or to be the perfect hero, Rash. We're not immortal gods. We're Spider-Man."
"YOU…SOUND LIKE YOU HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS. YOU ARE…NOT AFRAID OF THE DEVIL. OR OF GWEN. OR OF ANYONE."
"No. I'm not. Not anymore.
Felix's fears were Rash's fears. Felix understood that now.
Rash didn't completely understand it; Felix, himself, or Gwen. And yet the black veins began to recede. The Symbiote peeled away from green flesh in slow, liquid strands. Like a balloon, the Hulk deflated and Bruce Banner collapsed forward.
The Symbiote emerged as a sticky black cob. This was its feeble, original form. It could perhaps fill a bucket. Felix extended his hand.
"Do you want to come home, Rash?"
For a second that felt like a lifetime, nothing moved. But with eagerness, the black surged forward.
It was like warm water. It was like everything was right again. The Mark X responded too. Nanotech plates split and reformed as the Symbiote fused along pre-designed channels. Red circuitry flared brighter.
This was how he was supposed to defeat the Hulk originally. With himself, with Rash, and the Mark X in conjunction.
Black and red armor sealed across him, sleeker than before.
Spider-Man was whole. He flexed his fingers. The air itself seemed to tighten around his hand.
'We are backkkk! We are!'
'We are indeed.'
He smiled. The telekinetic connection to Herbie was back too.
'Alright, let's get to work! Herbie, where is Gwen Stacy? Let's chase after her.'
A map appeared, and then something else too. A window for a news channel. Felix stiffened. What was this?
'Herbie?'
'BREAKING NEWS — PRIME MINISTER KRISTOFF VERNARD OF LATVERIA HAS INITIATED A COUP AGAINST TEMPORARY MONARCH OCTAVIO VON BARDA! HE AND HIS PERSONAL SECURITY HAVE TAKEN OVER PARLIAMENT AND BEGUN EXECUTING MEMBERS HE DEEMS CORRUPT!"
Kristoff was doing what? No, not Kristoff…
"Harold…!"
That devil must have used his teleportation tech to get to Latveria and fast-track his revolution. He had done a deep-dive on Kristoff. He was against the elites in the same way other politicians were: he believed his elites were the good elites. He was the exact kind of man Harold would manipulate into working for him, or in this case, to use as a literal puppet.
"Dammit, that guy…"
Spider-Man tossed Bruce Banner up and stuck to the ceiling with webbing. Afterward, he started running out of the tunnel. Thwip! The moment he was out, he was met with helicopters shining light. Except they didn't see him. He was invisible. They were eagerly awaiting Spider-Man or Rash-Hulk to appear but neither did.
Spider-Man web-swung out of there. He desperately wanted to leave entirely. He wanted to chase after Gwen. He double-checked the map.
He grimaced. 'Still in the state of New York.'
'ACCORDING TO MY CALCULATIONS, MASTER FAETH, YOU CAN STILL CATCH UP.'
But he couldn't. He wanted, oh god he did, but although Rash had done his best to mitigate damage.
'I…am sorry…'
Like a rash child, he had messed up. The city was a disaster. Fires were spreading, buildings were falling apart, and even though SHIELD was seeking him, he couldn't let that stop him. This was HIS mess and this was his city.
'It's fine, Rash. Let's go save the people!'
'Yes! Let us!'
Thwip, thwip!
Spider-Man swung into action without anyone really knowing. It was like magic. Putting out fires, saving people from destroyed buildings, all the while flicking his invisibility on and off. He put a finger to his lips to the people that he was saving, telling them to keep it a secret. They were happy to.
He was nervous about a risky operation like this. It would be better to just go home and avoid SHIELD entirely.
But that wouldn't be right. He was Spider-Man.
Ben was right. The people loved him and admired him. They didn't betray him out to SHIELD. When they asked how they got, they came up with dramatic excuses.
No one sold him out. No one told SHIELD that Spider-Man was secretly saving the day.
There was perhaps a time that he was only doing good for the sake of good or for someone's memory, whether it was Reed's or Alistair's. Now though, it wasn't just for the sake of the city or for justice.
"T-thank you, Spider-Man!" It was a middle-aged woman with short brown hair, gasping and wheezing. Rash had smashed through her five-story office building, causing a slow collapse, floor by floor. Her hands clung to his shoulders. "I thought…I thought no one was going to save me."
This woman had been trapped underneath rubble.
He gave a nod and said, "I'm always here." Then he put a finger to his lips. "But shhh! Don't tell anyone."
The woman went wide-eyed. "Y-you can…" She gulped, smiled, and nodded. "U-understood! You didn't hear a thing from me, Spidey!"
She took a couple seconds longer to let him go. Everyone seemed to be like that. Spider-Man's heart fluttered.
As he worked and saved people, he kept an eye on the map that was slowly taking away Gwen. He winced. He hated every second of the fact that he had abandoned Gwen. And when she finally arrived at the prison and the tracking ended, Felix was also done.
The moon was high and the night was its darkest. It might not have been possible to even see him in his new black suit. He was perched atop a white water tower. He was watching from a distance and making sure the fire-fighters and construction workers were all okay. At this point, SHIELD had landed some helicopters and taken over the operation. This was their mess as much as it was Spider-Man's and Hulk's.
'Herbie, update on the coup?'
'KRISTOFF VERNARD HAS KILLED HIMSELF. THE PUBLIC WILL SOON ANNOUNCE HIS DEATH IN TWO MINUTES.'
Felix didn't know what to say. Harold had done it. He had completely and totally executed the corrupt members of the Latveria government in one fell swoop.
The Control Symbiote made his operations that much deadlier. He could get away with killing a number of people without being implicated. Without anyone realizing.
'And being Cindy's son, he most definitely knows how to reproduce the Control Symbiote.'
Teleportation made it impossible to catch him as well.
'Feliiiix…!'
'Rash? What's up?'
'You…don't seem…upset.'
'Over?'
'The coup. Over what Harold is doing. Do you…agree with him?'
He had to think.
'A little bit, yeah. Ending the already powerful from getting powers, I get that. No, I agree with it.'
'…! T-then…should we really stop him…?'
'We should, yes, because of Luke and Gwen and Samantha. They don't deserve to be executed because of his ideology. Harold doesn't seem to realize that they're like him. They're not King T'Challa or Peggy Carter. They're ordinary people whose lives were upheaved by their own powers. There was suffering and struggle. There was discrimination. Harold went through it, I went through it, Captain America went through it, Gwen went through it. Ending the very existence of us superhumans is to act like we never mattered at all. We did. We do. We will continue to. And I want to make him understand that.'
'I seeee. I understand, because understanding can lead to believing. Right?' Rash was combing through his memories. 'And you…you have a plan for the devil to understand and maybe even believe…!'
'I do. I've been thinking of ways to deal with him in a way that's not just me killing him and everything he stands for. I think I recently found one.'
He looked up at the moon again. It looked lonely.
This battle was over. To say Harold achieved victory in New York City was correct. But that did not mean he had won the war. This was not over yet.
The spider still had some tricks left for the goblin.