"Splash!!!"
The car screeched to a halt so abruptly that the tires screamed against the pavement. When the vehicle finally stopped, what lay ahead looked less like a city and more like the aftermath of a war.
The street had been reduced to scorched earth and shattered concrete. Buildings stood half-collapsed, their skeletal frames exposed, steel bars twisted like broken ribs. Smoke curled upward from the ruins, and the air carried the faint, suffocating scent of ash and burning debris.
It was hard to believe this devastation existed in the middle of a modern city.
April pushed open the car door and stepped out, her legs trembling slightly as they touched the ground. The scale of destruction pressed down on her, making even breathing feel heavier. She took a few steps forward, her eyes scanning the wasteland, and then she saw it.
The spider demon.
It loomed in the distance like something pulled straight out of a nightmare, its massive frame towering over everything around it. Just looking at it was enough to make a person instinctively shrink back.
A normal giant spider—two or three meters tall—was terrifying, but still within the realm of something humans could fight. There was still a sense that it could be resisted.
This thing was different.
It stood as tall as a ten-story building, its massive legs crushing whatever lay beneath them. With every step, another structure caved in, and the sound of collapsing buildings echoed like thunder. Exposed steel and shattered stone littered the ground, silently telling the story of everything it had destroyed.
April turned her head, scanning the area around her.
Civilians were running in all directions, many of them injured, some barely able to stand. Panic filled the streets, but there was something missing.
Where were the rescues?
Where were the so-called heroes?
The ones who claimed to stand for justice, who promised to protect people from exactly this kind of disaster—where were they now?
Her jaw tightened.
Without hesitation, she called out to her partner and started moving toward the center of the chaos.
"Are you crazy?! We could die out there!" her partner shouted, his voice cracking with fear as he hurried after her.
"I'm not crazy," April shot back, not even slowing down.
She gestured sharply at the devastation surrounding them, her voice rising with conviction. "Look at this place. Look at what's happening. We're journalists. It's our job to record this, every second of it."
Her eyes burned with intensity as she turned to face him fully for a moment.
"Trust me, this isn't just big news," she continued. "This is something that can expose those so-called heroes for what they really are."
Her words carried both logic and emotion, striking directly at his hesitation. The fear was still there, but something else crept in alongside it—temptation.
Fame. Recognition. Impact.
After a brief pause, he swallowed hard and nodded.
"Fine," he muttered. "Let's do it."
They pushed forward together.
At their current position, they were still on the outskirts of the battlefield, roughly a kilometer away from the epicenter. The closer they got, the more intense the destruction became, forcing them to weave through debris and partially collapsed structures.
More than ten minutes later, they finally crossed into the heart of the battle.
They passed through what used to be a house, now reduced to a single standing wall and scattered rubble. The moment they stepped beyond it, the full scale of the fight revealed itself.
April froze.
Above them, dozens of armored suits streaked through the sky like mechanical predators. Each one fired beams of energy that painted the battlefield in flashes of color, their attacks converging on the giant spider demon below.
The creature was surrounded.
More than a dozen suits circled it, attacking from every angle, their combined firepower relentless. Under normal circumstances, such an assault would have been enough to obliterate almost anything.
But this wasn't normal.
The spider demon staggered under the barrage, its massive body scorched and battered, yet it refused to fall. Its thick, armored exterior absorbed the damage, and despite its disheveled appearance, it remained standing.
Deep within its core, Peter fought.
The moment he sensed the danger closing in, his instincts kicked in. His spider-sense—once a subtle warning—now surged wildly, screaming at him from every direction. Even though the Iron Legion had inflicted heavy damage, he adapted quickly.
His control over the monstrous body sharpened.
His eyes were bloodshot, his expression twisted beyond recognition, but that didn't make him weak. If anything, the loss of rational thought had stripped away hesitation, leaving behind pure predatory instinct.
Slaughter.
Slaughter.
Slaughter.
The massive spider reared back, its eight elongated legs spreading wide before lashing out. Each one moved like a scythe, cutting through the air in a dense, overlapping storm of blades.
The attacks collided with the Iron Legion in ways no one expected.
Tony hesitated for just a fraction of a second.
"Bang!!"
That was all it took.
Two armored suits were sliced apart almost instantly, their metal frames torn open like paper. Flames erupted as they fell from the sky, debris scattering across the battlefield.
The impact sent a shockwave through the people below.
"So sharp…" Hawkeye muttered under his breath, staring upward with lingering fear. His grip tightened on his bow as he swallowed hard. "If that hit me, I wouldn't even have time to react."
Steve stood nearby, his expression grim.
There was nothing he could do.
Against an enemy of this scale, his strength and skill felt meaningless. He was still human, still bound by limits that this creature had long since surpassed.
Natasha, on the other hand, was already speaking into her communicator, her voice steady despite the chaos.
"We need reinforcements," she said. "Now."
They had all seen enough.
The power Peter displayed after merging with the symbiote was beyond anything they had prepared for. At this point, calling for backup wasn't just a precaution—it was the only option left.
…
"Captain America? Hawkeye? Black Widow?"
April's voice was filled with disbelief.
She had never met the Avengers in person before, only seen them through screens and reports. In her mind, they had always been untouchable, symbols of strength and reliability.
Now, standing there and watching them struggle, she saw something entirely different.
They looked… overwhelmed.
"Serves them right," she muttered, a faint laugh escaping her lips.
Her thoughts drifted back to her brief encounter with the Butcher. That man had been ruthless, efficient, and completely uncompromising when it came to dealing with criminals.
In her eyes, that was what justice looked like.
Not hesitation. Not restraint. Not waiting for laws and procedures to catch up.
Super criminals should be eliminated.
And yet, the Avengers had pushed someone like him out of their ranks.
It was ridiculous.
April clenched her jaw, anger flaring again as she turned to her partner.
"Get this on camera," she said firmly. "Every second of it. Their failure, their weakness—this is what people need to see."
"I'm already filming," he replied quickly, adjusting his angle as he captured the scene unfolding before them.
…
The battle shifted.
As Peter gained more control over the spider demon's body, the momentum began to change. The creature's movements grew more precise, more deliberate, as if it had finally synchronized with its host.
Now, it was his turn to attack.
Its jagged mouthparts opened, unleashing streams of thick, sticky webbing that shot across the battlefield. The strands spread rapidly, connecting buildings, ground, and air into a sprawling network.
Within moments, the area had transformed into a hunting ground.
The webbing wasn't just restraining—it was lethal.
Each strand carried immense tensile strength, capable of trapping and tearing apart anything caught within it. Even the Iron Legion's suits struggled to break free, their thrusters flaring as they fought against the sticky prison.
If they hesitated for even a second, they were finished.
Three more suits fell.
Explosions lit up the sky like fireworks, brilliant and violent, casting flickering light across the ruined city below.
Tony's expression darkened.
"That damn thing…"
He watched as another suit was destroyed, his jaw tightening.
The Iron Legion wasn't disposable.
Each unit represented an enormous investment, costing tens of millions to build and maintain. Only someone like him could afford to deploy such resources without hesitation—but that didn't mean he enjoyed watching them get torn apart.
Still, the financial loss wasn't the real problem.
This fight had gone on for too long.
And they still hadn't broken through.
For someone like Tony Stark—a man who prided himself on being the smartest in the room—that was unacceptable.
This wasn't just a battle anymore.
It was a slap in the face.
His eyes hardened as he made his decision.
"JARVIS," he said coldly. "Initiate Level One combat readiness."
There was no more room for restraint.
"Connect to the satellite weapon system," he continued, his voice steady and decisive. "Lock target on Spider-Man—Peter Parker…"
.....
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