Chapter Text
Five.
Four.
The door begins to hiss, as steam rises from its barriers. Slowly, the center of the door pulls apart.
Three.
“Status on system functionality, Amanda?”
“All systems including radar, and motion detection remain fully functional Miguel.”
Two.
“Proceed?”
“Proceed.”
One.
The night sky of Nueva York appears behind the open door, waiting for its one and only Spider-Man to emerge from the shadows. The sounds of hover vehicles, trains, and civilians fill the city, all under the watchful eye of its local hero. Before leaping out, Miguel gazes upon the horizon, taking in the sights of the city before proceeding. He’s somehow never tired of it, the neon lights, towers that reach to the heavens, ultimately he has a purpose here.
“Miguel, are we moving or?” His communicator interjects. He stops watching the city, and focuses.
“We have multiple sources indicating an unknown attacker west of the Alchemax safehouse.” Amanda continues.
“I need you on it, Public Eye is already dispatched, and I have emergency services on the way.” Miguel leaps off the landing pad.
“You got it boss.” Miguel says calmly, while he starts swinging from tower to tower.
Wary of his surroundings and the dozens of lanes of sky traffic that litter his path. His webs stick, and retract at each swing, he glides through the air almost elegantly. Miguel passes by one of the main Alchemax headquarters, a historic building central to the development of what is now Nueva York. A large hologram of him looms in front of the building, surrounded by a line of silver fountains, a symbol and display for the greatness of Alchemax. Miguel remains unsure in his feelings about the display of him, sure it’s great and all, but he feels there are better ways to show accomplishment, ways that aren’t, in his own terms, so “show-boaty”.
“Don’t.” Amanda interrupts Miguel’s thinking.
“I didn’t even say anything.” Miguel replies.
“You were thinking about it.”
“It’s just too big.” Referring to the absurdly large hologram of Miguel in uniform.
While Miguel swings through the city, Amanda operates the other essential aspects of every mission. Multiple feeds of the city race around her, circling her as she assesses each and every valuable point of Nueva York. She swipes through Public Eye feed, traffic cameras, and dispatches involving similar signs of civilian distress. Her initial facial analysis yields no luck, but a new photo taken outside of an office building emerges, right where the initial sighting began. The recognition program begins its reading.
10%
15%
35%
56%
Amanda’s expression changes, her display reads a 97.8% match to a known Alchemax executive. But the figure causing the damage is not him, or is it.
“Miguel.”
“What is it?” He responds, suddenly hearing a loud explosion coming from a few blocks ahead of him.
“The facial recognition match, it’s one of our executives, he was located at the initial incident, but he’s completely transformed somehow.” Amanda speaks, continuing to assess the footage and situation. Her displays shift from street to street, displaying a large amount of carnage and damage to nearby buildings.
“What do you mean by transform? You don’t think-” Miguel is interrupted.
“I don’t want to think that, but it’s probable at the moment.” Amanda continues dispatching more Public Eye, realizing the threat is greater than it was earlier anticipated. She extends the communication between her and Miguel to one of their head scientists.
“I have one of our science division leaders on the line, Miguel, meet Dr. Sloan.”
“You can call me Walker, but it’s a pleasure to finally meet the one and only Spider-Man, though this isn’t the best way for introductions, I’m sure we can make do.” Walker says, as he too looks through his own display of various scientific research.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, but look, can either of you tell me what is going on?” Miguel swings over a building, as he makes his way towards the chaos ahead of him.
“I need to know what I’m walking into.”
“Right, and I respect the urgency, but do either of you know anything of Symbiosis-”
“I’m trying to save lives here, let’s cut to the chase Dr. Sloan.” Miguel interjects.
“Walker, and alright.” He pauses for a moment.
“The victim here has been chosen as a host, by what we call a Symbiote.” Walker looks at his notes.
“In other words, he’s barely in control, it’s alive, it’s attached to him, and it is changing his body.” Walker confirms after reading.
“What is “it” exactly?” Miguel asks, nearly reaching his destination, the screams and terror get louder while he approaches.
“It happens to be an alien, it has many qualities, super strength, superhuman speed, and a form of regenerative healing, at the cost of its host that is.” Walker sighs.
“Okay, well I need to know his name, perhaps if they really are two beings I could reach out to him.” Miguel says, pausing on a ledge before continuing his trek. He comes to a stop before swinging, as he sees the safehouse surrounded by flames.
Civilians and Alchemax workers alike scatter the outside of the building, avoiding the continuously growing flames of the walls behind them. A man running out screams about someone being left in there. Miguel is immediately on the move.
“Miguel I have emergency services and Public Eye there, I need you to confirm visibility on the threat.” Amanda tries using nearby drones for visuals but to no avail.
“I have a person believed to be trapped inside, I’m going in.” Miguel walks into the building, half of it continuing to burn, with no signs of stopping.
“Turn on heat protection.” Miguel says to his suit.
“Heat protection on.” The suit responds.
Miguel enters the building, sliding the half destroyed door aside before entering. The hallway in front of him remains clear of any flames, but the floors above tell a different story. Miguel walks through the stairs, and the building begins to shake.
“Amanda, I need to know his name.” Miguel says while making his way to the sixth floor, looking for any signs of life. A piece of debris nearly falls on him, he barely avoids it.
“The subject's name is Michael Erick. One of our executives here manages a lot of our labs.” Amanda continues.
“Do we know anything else besides that?” Miguel asks, hoping to find a way to make contact with Michael.
“He has 2 kids, a wife named Eilene, the kids are named Markus and Tanner. Look whatever you do, I need you to make sure he doesn’t cause any more damage than he has already.” Amanda responds, hoping Miguel doesn’t leave his surroundings even worse than when he found them.
“Affirmative, but let me find this civilian first, they have to be here somewhere.” Miguel walks diligently, hoping to hear something, anything to find the person trapped.
“Help? I’m over here.” A man’s voice echoes in the building, followed by loud coughing, the man struggles to breathe as the building increasingly fills with smoke.
“I’m coming! Don’t worry I’m right here.” Miguel follows the voice through the smoke, getting thicker as he continues.
“Spider-Man? Is that you? Are we gonna be okay?” The frightened man continues, his voice getting closer to Miguel.
“We’re gonna be just fine, I’m going to make sure both of us make it back home.” He reassures the man.
“He’s gone though right?” The frightened man asks. He finally sees Miguel through the smoke, spotting the blue suit lined with glowing red lights.
As soon as he says those words, Miguel’s motion detection goes off, a different set of motion apart from his appears behind Miguel. He looks over his shoulder as his sensor vibrates behind him, when a red fist rushes towards his face. In an instant, Miguel grabs the man, who screams as he is tackled to the ground to avoid the incoming punch. The pair roll a fair distance away from where they are initially attacked, onto the wall of the building itself.
“You alright?” Miguel asks the man on top of him. The man, frightened for his life, says nothing, gasping for air still. Miguel sets him aside for a moment, standing up to see where they stand now.
Miguel spots a window right in front of him before he can get attacked again. The man hears a sudden crash. Broken glass falls outside, the man questions how he broke it so easily, on full display are long sharp claws at the ends of Miguel’s fingers, emerging almost with the suit itself.
“You’re going to have to trust me okay.” Miguel says before quickly grabbing the man and leaping out of the 6th story. Screaming fills Miguel's ears, and as quickly as it started, it stops when Miguel uses his web to stop their fall. Miguel slowly brings both of them towards the street below, and lets the man reach solid ground.
“Thank you, uh Spider-Man.” The man sheepishly says, trying to hide the fact he was screaming at the top of his lungs a second ago.
And as soon as the man showed his gratitude, Miguel was already back on the same story he had just launched out of. Making his way back through the window. The flames around him grew even worse, almost hungry to continue burning the building. Whatever stood in front of Miguel also carried that same desperation, and Miguel needed to find out why.
“Michael! I know you’re here!” Miguel yells, only seeing smoke, when his sensor beeps again. This time to the left side of him.
Miguel weaves away as a right hook of flesh nearly hits him, flipping to regain posture and ground, he webs the arm that just tried to hit him to the floor. Hoping this could at least stall him. It does not, the flesh instead of ripping through the web like he is used to, separates and almost liquifies itself to pass through it. Miguel, surprised, recaptures his focus and prepares for another strike. Another punch approaches him, nearly hitting Miguel's head, he watches the hand move back, fleshy, red, to him gross, but he sees a glimmer of something, a small pocket watch on a wrist.
“Hey I’m not sure how to hit him, Michael’s body is still in there.” Miguel explains to Amanda, avoiding another punch as he tries to think what he can do to him. He can’t just utilize his claws he thinks to himself, he risks hurting Michael in the process of doing so.
“Restrain and distract him, we need him off edge if hitting him is gonna risk Michael.” Amanda says, hoping Miguel finds a way from his own ingenuity like he usually does.
Miguel punches him, holding himself back a bit to not hurt him, the figure doesn’t move, he thrashes forward violently and swings both arms as they begin stretching around Miguel. One grabs around him at his waist while the other winds up to hit him. Miguel with no other choice, claws at the arms wrapped around him. The being screams in agony, allowing Miguel to slip away, but not before receiving a direct hit straight to the head.
“Miguel!” Amanda yells before Miguel slams to the floor, his head now resting on a tile.
Miguel wakes up, or he thinks he does, the environment around him makes no sense, a bright lit up white room now encompasses his view. He lies on a surgery bed and begins to look around. Looking down at his arms he finds both his hands restrained to the bed. A voice can be heard above him.
“Again.”
Miguel witnesses a flash of red, gasping for air, before waking up to the fire around him. Smoke, and flames continue to engulf his surroundings. His eyes shoot open, and he sees the tall red figure approach him, his smile crooked and his eyes almost beaming with what Miguel thinks is pure hatred. Of who, he does not know.