"Whoosh!"
Up in the skies, the wind howled past.
Peter clung to his webline with a death grip, like a pitiful bug being dragged forward by a wild beast.
"Let go, you little pest!"
The Green Goblin surfed between skyscrapers. His tilted glider rose and dipped, then whipped into sudden high-speed turns, trying to shake Peter off his tail.
But he underestimated Spider-Man's bioelectric adhesion.
"Spiders aren't insects! Did you fail biology or something?" Peter shouted.
The Goblin's vicious gaze bored through his visor and locked onto Spider-Man. He couldn't care less whether a spider counted as an insect. He only wanted to get rid of this annoying pest, then kill Norman Osborn, that old fox, and take back his company.
That's right. In his eyes, even if it was called Osborn, it still belonged to him, not Norman. He had poured massive funds into Osborn. He was the real owner.
Norman Osborn had used underhanded methods to force him to give up his shares. The whole thing was a trap.
He lost a fortune, became a laughingstock, while Norman washed away every stain in one stroke with that so-called healing serum and turned into a darling in everyone's eyes.
Stromm wasn't willing to hand Oscorp over like that.
So he took a desperate gamble. He used an improved version of the Lizard Serum, stole all the data and prototypes of the armor and flight tech Oscorp had been developing…
Of course, more importantly, he had already signed a contract with a certain existence.
"I'm not like you, fighting alone, Spider-Man!" The Green Goblin's eyes tilted downward as he laughed darkly.
At the same time, several blocks away, an assassin in a black uniform with a white circle painted on his head had already locked onto Spider-Man.
Bullseye raised his pistol and aimed at Spider-Man in the sky.
As Kingpin's strongest killer, Bullseye's efficiency was terrifying, and he almost never missed.
Recently, Spider-Man had been teaming up with Matt from time to time to hit gangs in Hell's Kitchen, clearing out a lot of Kingpin's black-market goods and dealing his criminal empire a real blow.
In the past, few people dared oppose him. Anyone who did got stuffed into cement and sunk at the docks.
But Spider-Man and Daredevil were different. Both were extremely skilled, especially Spider-Man. Even gathering a whole gang together, it was hard to take him down.
That drew Kingpin's attention.
He was already planning to remove Spider-Man. And right then, the Green Goblin appeared out of nowhere. One side had equipment and superpowers, the other had connections and manpower. They hit it off instantly and decided to kill Spider-Man.
Kilometers away, a dull gunshot cracked.
The bullet burst out, cutting through the air, passing between high-rises, even slicing past the white pigeons in flight as it screamed toward Spider-Man.
If nothing went wrong, that shot would punch straight through Spider-Man's skull.
Bullseye had that confidence.
But something did go wrong.
In the final seconds before impact, the Spider-Man hanging in midair seemed to sense something and tucked his head back.
The copper-colored bullet, trailing the scent of gunpowder, flashed past Peter's face.
In that moment, time itself seemed to slow. Through the goggle-like lenses of his mask, Peter could see the bullet's path as it tore through the air.
Bang!
In an instant, the bullet slammed into the building behind him. A huge section of glass shattered, and razor-sharp shards rained down toward the street below.
"He dodged?" Bullseye couldn't believe it.
He was a natural-born marksman. Air currents, the Goblin's flight path, the way Spider-Man swayed while hanging under the glider, he calculated it all. He couldn't miss.
But the bullet didn't lie.
And in the moment Bullseye froze in shock, Peter's expression changed completely.
Falling glass from fifty or sixty meters up was basically a guillotine from the sky. If it hit a pedestrian, it would kill them on the spot.
Thinking that, Peter released his web without hesitation and dove straight down toward the falling shards.
His arms tucked tight under his armpits, like a hunting hawk folding its wings as it drops.
Even so, it still wasn't fast enough.
His spider-sense screamed.
Peter felt like violent electricity was buzzing through his brain, numbing his skull.
Below, the unlucky pedestrians caught up in it let out terrified screams. They instinctively covered their heads and crouched. Fear made them forget to even try to run.
But there was still a chance.
In an instant, Peter's brain calculated the stress points and angles of every piece of glass, and he silently thanked Bant for upgrading his web shooters.
"Web-weave mode!"
In the next moment, webs exploded from Peter's wrists in every direction.
Like white radiation fanning out.
The webbing snapped toward the falling shards.
This can work!
Excitement surged through him.
But the Green Goblin, as if he'd just found something hilarious, cackled and looped back through the air. He pressed a button on his wrist, and several razor-sharp blades shot out from the glider, slicing every strand of Peter's webbing apart.
"Hahahaha!"
"No!" Peter screamed in despair.
"You can't save them, Spider-Man!" the Goblin laughed. With his glider's thrust, he moved later but arrived first, slamming straight into Peter.
"Ah, my back!" Peter screamed.
The groove at the front of the glider rammed into his spine. The force was no different from being hit by a car at full speed.
For a split second, Peter thought he'd nearly been cut in half.
"Hahahahaha!"
The Green Goblin stared at Peter like a raging Spanish bull, charging into the sky. Peter, stuck in the glider's groove, was like a matador jammed between the bull's horns, getting carried and thrown along.
The Goblin grabbed Peter's head with brute force, nearly peeling his scalp off.
And it all happened in an instant.
"Watch them die, Spider-Man!" the Goblin roared.
"Not necessarily!"
In that razor-thin moment between life and death, a black shadow shot in like lightning.
Bant, wearing a black suit, was wrapped in blue arcs of electricity. He dropped in an instant, current bursting under his feet, boosting his already insane speed into something even more terrifying.
In the blink of an eye, he had already streaked past Peter and the Goblin.
He whipped the chain on his wrist outward with all his strength.
Crash!
The air detonated.
The electrified chain struck a massive shard of glass, and blue arcs splashed outward like sparks, leaping to other fragments.
Crack!
Under that single strike, every shard shattered into powder, clattering down like sand and gravel.
At the same time, the black Spider-Man landed on the ground.
"Another Spider-Man?" The Goblin's voice warped with shock.
And the Peter in his grip lit up with excitement. Now he finally understood why his spider-sense had been going insane.
He wanted to shout Bant's name immediately, but obviously this wasn't the time.
Bant lowered his head and looked at his hands. Between his palms, the electric arcs quickly weakened until they vanished.
"If I don't transform into a Phantasm-type species, using that Eternal Power really is hard," he muttered.
After the trip to Sakaar, a seed of Eternal Power had been left inside him. When he transformed into that Phantasm species, his Eternal Power could rival Caiera's.
But once he turned into other forms, the power weakened.
Like just now, he only used Eternal Power to sprint for a few seconds, and it was already depleted.
It would recover, sure, but the duration and strength were disappointing.
"Whatever. Three seconds is still impressive," he comforted himself, then raised his head toward the sky.
By now, Peter had broken free of the Goblin's control and struggled to jump down from above.
The gliding wings under his arms opened, and he landed beside Bant, panting. "When did you get back?"
"Not long ago," Bant said. "Also, you can call me Hacker Spider-Man."
"Good. Hacker." With a different name to separate them, Peter felt much better.
"We'll take him together…" Peter was eager to jump in.
"Two Spider-Men!"
"I can't even imagine how insane the box office would be if this got turned into a movie!"
But Bant shook his head coldly. The black uniform alone carried an oppressive pressure.
Without even looking back, he pointed toward a direction several blocks away. "The one who shot at you is over there. You go deal with him. I'll handle this Halloween clown."
Peter didn't object.
Most of the time, he listened to Bant without question.
Spider-Man turned and left. The innocent pedestrians had already hidden once Bant pulverized the glass.
The whole block became empty again.
Black Spider-Man faced off with the green Goblin.
Unlike Spider-Man, who'd already been tangled with him for nearly a month, the Goblin couldn't read Bant at all.
He didn't rush in. Instead, he spoke in a strange tone. "I didn't know New York had a black widow too. Tell me, what do you want, Hacker Spider-Man?"
"Don't tell me it's saving the world."
Even through the Goblin's mask, Bant could imagine the mockery on his face.
But Bant didn't get angry.
Sometimes, when the gap in level was too wide, you couldn't even summon rage.
"I'm not as merciful as Spider-Man, Green Goblin," Bant said, pinching his wrist.
"What did you say?!" The Goblin screamed. Like a madman, he launched a sneak attack. Three pumpkin bombs with terrifying power slammed toward Bant without hesitation!
Boom!!!
Flames surged into the sky!
But the Goblin didn't even have time to celebrate before a black shadow burst out through the fire.
Bant pounced like a beast, his palm carrying dozens of tons of force as he slapped down at the Goblin's head.
Smack!
That slap nearly twisted the Goblin's head clean off.
The Goblin's skull rang. His vision spun. Before he could react, he felt a force seize his mask and lift him up.
Then a wicked voice whispered into his ear.
"I said…"
"I'm going to throw some ash in your eyes."
/-\
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters!
~ +20 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon! (+1 Chapter daily)
https://p-atreon.com/Its_Zack
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access Patreon normally)