When Peter and Miguel found Gwen and the others, they were sitting in on a class. The instructor for this course was the most experienced Spider-Man in the entire headquarters with the longest combat record—Peter Parker of Earth-19529. The story of his universe was also known by another name: Spider-Man: Life Story.
To put it simply, this Spider-Man had become a hero at the age of fifteen in 1963, and in his universe, it was now 2013. He had been fighting for nearly fifty years, battling from the age of fifteen all the way to sixty-five.
When the Society found him and warned him about Morlun, it came as a surprise that Earth-19529 had already encountered Morlun. His clone, Ben Reilly, had been killed by the Inheritor. Upon receiving the news, the restless old-timer came to the headquarters to serve as an instructor.
Indeed, no one was better suited for the role of coach than him. A large number of Spider-People were training here so they could return home and do a better job of thrashing their villains.
Additionally, he wasn't the one running the rescue special training class, as the Gwen of his universe hadn't died from being dropped off a bridge by the Green Goblin.
"You don't seem particularly worried about Earth-1610."
"I'm not entirely sure what the situation is in that universe, but I have an intuition that they can handle their own problems. Just like most people's universes, as long as no one interferes, everything will proceed as it should."
Peter truly wasn't that worried about Earth-1610. After all, while the Ultimate Universe was notorious for being grim and full of bad writing, its danger level was actually significantly lower than that of Earth-616. It was just that the moral standards of the people there were several notches lower, and the writers' complete lack of care for the characters meant people died frequently.
Peter watched two Gwens dressed in identical outfits sparring in the training hall. It was easy to tell which one was from Earth-616 and which was from Earth-65; the amateurish one was from 616, while the well-trained one was from 65.
Furthermore, their hairstyles were different—one had short hair and the other had long hair. Aside from that... there really wasn't much of a difference.
Miguel chatted with Peter for a few moments before leaving again. He had his own Earth-928 to attend to and couldn't spend every waking moment focusing on the headquarters. It was only after Miguel left that Peter noticed Jessica walking toward him.
"So, Spider-Man is Peter Parker. For a long time, I never made the connection. It's quite strange, really."
Jessica stood beside him, speaking of the matter before letting out a helpless laugh. "Oh, how should I put it? The moment my powers awakened, it was as if everything just clicked together. Suddenly, it felt like you just had to be Spider-Man."
"Theoretically, the spider serum doesn't just grant spider-powers; it also significantly enhances all bodily functions, including intelligence. So..."
Jessica looked at Peter, tilting her head as she asked, "Are you saying my original IQ wasn't high enough?"
"No, no, no, that's not what I meant at all."
Peter hurriedly explained himself. He only relaxed when he saw Jessica break into a casual smile.
Jessica then looked at the two Gwens training together and finally said what had been on her mind.
"I've been wanting to say thank you. After all, you were the one who saved me during the Battle of New York. And I never imagined back then that I would gain spider-powers myself—now that I know what you're capable of, I feel even more strongly that I should thank you."
"Thank you, Spidey. Thank you for persevering until now, just to make our world a little bit better."
Peter scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Actually, I've always felt like I'm just doing what I can."
"And that's exactly why you deserve this thank you."
After Jessica finished speaking, her expression turned serious. "You probably know I found Cindy and the others because I was looking for you for a reason, right?"
"Yeah, what's wrong?"
"There was a brutal murder at a funeral home in Harlem. Seven people were killed. I went to check out the scene. The victims' heads were missing, and it looked like... they were bitten off by some massive mouth."
The moment he heard this description, Peter's expression instantly became solemn. On the current Earth-616, the characteristic of heads being bitten off could only point to one type of creature.
Symbiotes.
"That's impossible. Both Venom and I confirmed that the symbiotes that came to Earth with it, as well as Grendel, are all dead. The Avengers also analyzed the artificial symbiotes Otto created; their feeding doesn't rely on the act of eating."
The current situation between Peter and Venom was rather... mysterious. After Otto used molecular vibration to separate the two, Venom teamed up with Flash Thompson as a temporary partner. They continued to work together throughout the Kang Dynasty, and Flash had since become a formal host. Furthermore, Venom felt that it was starting to fall behind in Peter's level of combat.
On the other hand, Peter, who had obtained Anti-Venom through Mr. Negative's healing, found that Venom couldn't return even if it wanted to. Although Anti-Venom was mindless, it had a very strong self-defense mechanism; if it tried to merge with Venom, Anti-Venom might very well kill the other symbiote.
Thus, the two had temporarily parted ways.
"I also asked headquarters to contact Flash, and his reply was the same. So I came to ask you, since you're much smarter than him."
Jessica continued to list the clues she knew: "The perpetrator came out of the incinerator. According to the funeral home's records, they were cremating the body of a death row inmate from Rykers Island that night. But there haven't been any records of death row executions recently."
"A non-existent death row inmate?" Peter thought rapidly. "The records might have been erased. No, more likely, he's been 'dead' on record for a long time but was actually being subjected to some kind of human experimentation. In that case, the killer might not necessarily be a symbiote—"
Peter stopped mid-sentence because he remembered he had once investigated the status of Carnage's host, Cletus Kasady. Cletus had been imprisoned on Rykers Island, but nearly a year ago—shortly after Peter first joined the Avengers—he had supposedly been executed.
But if...
"I can give you a name to look into, Senior. Cletus Kasady. In some universes, he is the host of the symbiote known as Carnage. I've checked his files, and theoretically, he died a year ago, but I'm not so sure about that now."
What Peter was even less sure about was the source of Carnage. If Carnage had truly appeared, where did it come from? After all, he was certain that Venom had never spawned any offspring.
But... what if it really was Carnage?
"If Cletus really is still alive."
Peter's expression became grim. "Then Flash is in danger."