Was there darkness? Was there light?
It was hard to say. He was healing. He was alive. Willpower was what separated him from conscience and simply surviving.
Get up.
Get up.
'You're Spider-Man. Get up.'
The world lurched back into partial existence. Sound returned in fragments: the groan of strained metal far above and the distant drip of water. Right, he was…underground. Deep underground. His body followed more slowly. Fingers twitched. One leg spasmed and then went still again.
Pain arrived late.
It slammed into him all at once, white-hot and suffocating. Felix gasped, sucking in air that scraped his lungs raw. His heart stuttered, missed a beat, then another.
BRAIN WAVES SCANNED. THE LOSS OF SYMBIOTE RASH HAS DISTURBED THE EXTREMIS FUNCTION WITHIN THE BRAIN. HEALING NOT OPTIMIZED.
WARNING—HEART RATE FALLING.
WARNING—HEART RATE FALLING.
Rash was a child running on fear, underestimating how intertwined he and Felix had become over the past year. As a result, the immediate loss was devastating. It felt like losing a limb you didn't realize you'd grown accustomed to using for balance. A pressure that had always been there—coiled, watchful, present—had vanished, leaving his thoughts exposed and raw.
His heart fluttered again, weaker this time.
He needed to recuperate. He needed to go home.
"Ah…" His throat worked. "T-there you are."
He had something planned just for this. In case he was incapacitated, which Herbie could detect via the Mark X, special Spider-Bots were to be deployed to inject him with a special kind of adrenaline. It was inspired and halfway based on the Super Soldier Serum he developed. In exchange for eating away at his metabolism, it would bolster his healing factor.
At first, he thought he was hallucinating, but no, they had made it. Tiny metal legs clicked against his neck. Two of them, he counted. The Spider-Bots unfolded a syringe no bigger than a tooth and injected them into his neck.
Felix hissed. His heart slammed back into rhythm.
Hard.
Too hard.
Felix cried out, back arching as Extremis reignited under forced conditions. His muscles seized, then burned as regeneration kicked back into motion, accelerated beyond what his battered body wanted or deserved.
WARNING: METABOLIC OVERDRIVE.
WARNING: CELLULAR CONSUMPTION RATE CRITICAL.
"I know—!" Felix gasped. "I know—just—just keep me alive!"
The Spider-Bots retreated as quickly as they had come, dissolving into the suit. The suit could merge with most metals in order to repair itself. A great feature for the missing pieces.
"Nngh!" Felix rolled onto his stomach and vomited. It was dark and bitter and tasted like iron and ozone. His vision swam, but it held.
That was enough.
With a broken sound halfway between a laugh and a sob, Felix forced himself up onto his hands and knees.
Then his feet.
The chamber spun around him. He staggered, nearly fell, caught himself on a pylon slick with his own blood.
"Okay," he whispered. "Okay. Move."
He climbed.
The shaft Harold had left behind was a nightmare of twisted rebar, fractured concrete, and sheer vertical ruin. Felix climbed anyway, fingers and toes finding holds out of muscle memory more than strength.
Just climb.
Climb. Climb.
Like a spider.
By the time he emerged into the open night air, he was shaking violently. New York greeted him with rain-slick streets and neon glare, utterly unaware of how close it had come to annihilation. Sirens wailed somewhere far away.
'But nothing's, nggh, happened yet. New York…is still okay. Herbie, where is Rash?'
LOCATION OF RASH ACQUIRED. HOWEVER…
MASTER FAETH, YOU ARE IN CRITICAL CONDITION. IN THIS CIRCUMSTANCE, IT IS IN MY PROTOCOL KEEP YOU FROM DYING. FIGHTING EITHER HAROLD OSBORN OR RASH WILL LEAD TO THAT OUTCOME.
'Oh, for the love of—you didn't say that about Reed, did you!?'
Glaring at nothing but the open air, he got to his feet, fired a webline, and launched himself forward. Web-swinging had never felt like this. Normally, it was rhythm with grace a-and flow.
Now it was…it felt like survival. Every time webbing erupted from the slits of his wrist, blood oozed. It mixed with the webbing too, turning it a dark shade of red. It wasn't normal.
He swung low, keeping to alleys, avoiding open streets. Blood streaked behind him in thin, shameful lines, flung from open wounds his suit couldn't fully close. His arms trembled with each release, his fingers numb. His internal system reloaded webbing again and again, but with darker shades of red.
"Just—keep—moving," he muttered through clenched teeth.
An alley opened ahead of him. He misjudged the angle. The webline snapped loose from the brick with a sound like a gunshot.
"Shit—!"
Felix dropped and hit the dumpster back-first. Metal shrieked. His vision went white. He bounced, rolled, and hit the ground hard enough that the world simply… stopped.
How had he become so pathetic?
No. How else would a fight against the Hulk go?
"Oh! O-oh Lord…!"
Was…was that somebody's voice?
Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Felix found himself passing out again.
***
When he woke, the first thing he noticed was warmth. He was laying on a couch. The second was the smell.
He blinked.
The ceiling above him was low and stained, lit by a flickering fluorescent bulb. Shelves crowded the walls, stacked with oddities like radios, watches, old cameras, things forgotten and half-broken. Where the hell was he? In some kind of backroom?
Felix inhaled sharply and sat up too fast.
"Whoa—hey!" a voice said immediately. "Easy there."
Hands pressed gently against his shoulders, easing him back down.
"Relax," the old man continued, calm and steady. "You took a pretty nasty fall."
Felix's heart raced as he took in his surroundings. He was still in costume despite the holes. Someone had cleaned the worst of the blood off him. Bandages wrapped the one part of his torso where the armor had failed.
His mask was…off.
'Herbie? Why is my mask off—?'
The answer didn't immediately come since the mask wasn't on. From his collar, a line of red crawled up and into his ear, formulating into an earbud. The man could not see it or hear what was being said. "WELCOME BACK, MASTER FAETH. ALTHOUGH EXTREMIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO HEAL YOU, THERE WAS ONLY A 50% CHANCE FOR IT. I DID NOT WISH TO GAMBLE THOSE ODDS AND ALLOWED HIM TO INCREASE THOSE ODDS TO 80%."
He looked to the side. The old man sat on an overturned crate nearby, calm as could be, slicing an apple with a pocketknife. He was older, silver at the temples, movements unhurried and practiced. A small plate beside him already held neatly cut pieces.
He looked up and smiled.
"Y-you're…"
"I knew it. We've met before, haven't we? Well, in case ya don't remember, I'm Benjamin Parker!" He gave a two-finger salute, then went back to slicing the apple. "But even though I know the face, I can't point to a name…."
"I'm, uh, Felix Faeth," he said, feeling exposed. Because for once, he was speaking as both Spider-Man and Felix Faeth. It was always one or the other, never both and never like this.
"Ohh, yes, I remember now! Alistair Smythe, last year!" He winked. "I got a good memory, you see."
Felix wasn't sure how to respond except with a faint smile. "How…how long has it been since I got hit?"
"Half a day."
Half a day…?
Half a day had passed since his fight with the Hulk. Since Rash left him. His heart started to raise. He wanted to get up right then and there and start going to where he needed to go.
"So…you're Spider-Man. Looks like you're having trouble, huh? I saw the news."
Felix cocked his head slightly. "What happened?"
"More like what is happening." He pulled out his phone and showed him a livestream on Youtube. "Have a look."
The livestream title scrolled across the top in frantic all-caps, chat exploding beside it.
LIVE: MONSTROUS HULK THING VS BLACK GOO SPIDER-WOMAN??
The camera shook violently as the helicopter banked, trying—and failing—to keep distance. Below, a stretch of reconstructed city had been reduced to a warzone. Buildings leaned at impossible angles, some already collapsing, others webbed together in desperate attempts to keep them standing.
And at the center of it all—
Bam, bam, bam!
The Hulk was there, in black and not green. Fists thrown and being dodged. What Felix had fought had become taller and broader and almost as strong. The living black mass that painted over the green skin had taken over and was using its strength to great effect.
'Rash...!'
Felix knew it instantly. The way it punched. The way it hungered. It was trying to copy him, but completely failed.
Rash roared with the vessel of the Hulk. To him, to anyone really, it came out was wrong. Too many voices stacked inside one throat. Every swing of his arm sent shockwaves through the air, flinging cars like toys.
Which was when a lithe figure in red slammed into Hulk's chest, driving him back half a block. The impact flattened a row of parked cars. Beside the video, the chat exploded. Rash's opponent was here.
"Gwen Stacy…!"
"Yes," Benjamin confirmed with what sounded like disappointment. "Has to be her, right?"
Gwen didn't stop attacking. She flipped off his chest as he staggered, landed on a collapsing bus, and launched herself again, both feet driving into his jaw. Rash shrieked and answered with a backhand.
Gwen barely dodged, the wind shear ripping chunks out of nearby buildings. On all fours, countered with webbing that was like red cables, wrapping around Hulk's forearm and burned where they touched him. She yanked Rash down and his head met with her fist.
The Symbiote, the Hulk, was launched off his feet.
Felix couldn't believe what he was seeing. She was hurting him.
Whether it was because of the fact that her Symbiote was ultra-effective against other Symbiotes or her natural progression in strength didn't matter. Gwen Stacy was fighting toe-to-toe with the Hulk.
He doubted anyone else saw it but he did. The white on the Symbiote's face, it was becoming lurching from her face. Becoming hungrier and wanting to devour the thing in front of her.
Rash landed on his giant feet. When he landed, the ground buckled. The black Symbiote grew a smile that stretched too wide with too many teeth.
"WE! WILL! NOT! DIE!"
If Gwen did quip back, it was not caught on the livestream. Thwip, thwip! The smaller woman slammed Hulk into the side of a skyscraper with both legs, pinning him there with every ounce of strength she had. Her Symbiote flared and suddenly, in the area where they were being pinned, red tendrils were spreading. Red tendrils were slowly consuming Rash.
"You won't. You'll simply become one with us!"
Laughter echoed through the audio.
A tidal wave of red rose from the skyscraper building and parted the skies. Cables and tendrils started spewing out as though blasts of energy were emerging from a black hole.
Oh no.
A massive tendril shot upward and went straight at the helicopter. Felix had just enough time to see the black shape fill the screen before it hit. The feed cut to static. The livestream ended.
Silence flooded the backroom.
"O-oh my goodness." Benjamin flipped his phone over. He clicked the screen a couple times, to no avail. "D-did that just…did she…?"
Had Gwen Stacy absorbed Rash? Had she? Or was that burst of black from Rash him successfully escaping? Was the battle over?
'What does this mean for Harold? Is he…is he just watching this? Is he waiting for the right time to control Gwen Stacy or...or does he already have control of Gwen?'
If that was the case, then…then did that mean the Sheath was under Harold's possession too? Was...was it all over?
Had Harold won?
His forehead throbbed. The police couldn't stop this. S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn't stop this. He...he couldn't either. With Gwen under his control, with Rash being absorbed, with the Sheath that put the fear of GOD into Rash and was older than the universe itself...what could he do?
"That was Gwen Stacy, right? What's the new suit all about?" Benjamin rightfully expected him to have the answers and…and he did. "What's all this goo business about? You had one too, but it helped, right? Should we be worried? Can you stop it—"
"No! No, I—I don't know if I can stop it." He didn't mean to yell. Frustrated, Felix buried his face in his hands. Benjamin stared at him and softened. "Christ. Just feels like the more I try, the more I mess up. How has this even happened? How has shit gotten this bad? I should have…I could have done better! I know I could have!"
That was his Symbiote. He should have planned better. He should have comforted Rash! Meditated better!
As though his strength and anger meant nothing, a hand was put on his shoulder. "You can't control the world, young man. There's billions of people, billions of possibilities. You can't be responsible for everything."
"Except I COULD have stopped Rash. That thing, that huge alien," he blabbered, "I know I could have stopped and convinced—'
"Whether one of those…alien things was your friend or not, whether they're good or not, I don't think it's up to you to control." Benjamin squeezed. It was a gentle chid. "Trust me. The same way that monster Creature Z came and attacked us, bad things happen. They're apart of life."
"I should be able to stop it. I know I can. I know I can be so much better and stronger than…than this."
Benjamin drew in a long breath, released him, and looked away. "That girl, Gwen Stacy…she killed my nephew."
…!
"He was like a son to me. When she got arrested, the prosecutors asked me if I wanted to pursue the death sentence. There was a good chance for it if I testified. Do you know what I said?"
Felix…wasn't sure if he wanted to answer.
"I rejected it. She was just a kid when it happened even though…even though she fully admitted to doing it." Ben still did not look at him. "I don't like being weak. None of us do. But we can't allow ourselves to beat ourselves up on what ifs. Doing that'll just help the real bad guys, right?"
Benjamin managed a small laugh. Felix had to look away from it.
"I think deep down, there's a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble... and finally allows us to die with pride. I really think that."
"But the world makes it hard."
"It does, doesn't it? But I don't think that's an excuse. I think we can still try. Tell me, Spider-Man, are you trying? Or have you given up on being honest?"
"....no. Never."
"Then don't look so glum." Uncle Ben grinned. "Sometimes, I know, it feels like we can't do it for ourselves. But then again, we're not alone, are we? Human beings are never alone. We're not puppets. We're always talking and growing and smiling. We know when something is wrong or right or, sometimes, neither. But I think the world is a great place."
"You think it's great?"
"I do. I know, hard to believe?" The old man grinned as though the darkness had never touched him. "I was a child during the war, you know? And people, they did things. They weren't good or evil, they just…were being people. But we all came out of it hoping for a better day, working day and night for it, and guess what? Better days came, didn't they? People bought houses, had children. We sang songs and danced. We loved. We hated. We lived. There was a lot of darkness but there was so much light too. I had a nephew and he…he was brilliant." Then he gestured at Felix. "And you arrived too. The world sure is kind, isn't it?"
It was the kind of bold compliment he didn't often receive. His cheeks flushed. "I think…you're too kind."
"Haha, don't be modest, Spider-Man! The people know they see a hero. Courageous, self-sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us... Everybody loves a hero. People line up for them. Cheer them. Scream their names. And years later, they'll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them to hold on a second longer."
He could only look down at his injury wrapped torso. "I…doubt I've done anything like that."
"You have. Just ask me. Heh, me and this kid Henry Jackson actually. Couple months back, both of us were acting like chipmunks when we heard Spider-Man was sighted. He never ended up showing up, probably some drunk idiot making a mistake, but…" Benjamin winked. "We bought some mean tacos—and made some great memories."
Spider-Man had seen this system and it didn't perfectly work. The system gave birth to Harold. And Spider-Man…Spider-Man didn't perfectly work either.
So what?
Benjamin Parker was right, better days were ahead. They had to be. If Felix didn't truly believe that with the bottom of his heart, then he never would have become Spider-Man. He never would have come to New York. He never would have gone into the sciences.
Felix Faeth, Spider-Man, he was both. And both believed in better days.
He laughed until there wasn't any more pain. He looked up at Benjamin. "You got any spare clips or phones?"
"What for?"
"Need to repair this suit. It can absorb metal. It won't be as thick or dense, but I'll be able to work."
Benjamin's brows furrowed in concern. "You're…going out? Are you sure?"
"I'm Spider-Man." He jumped off the bed, surprising the old man, and rolled his shoulders. The mask pulled itself on. "It's my responsibility."
***
Black and red mass writhed upward from the face of the skyscraper Gwen had pinned Rash against, tendrils fanning out like roots. The skyscraper itself was the plant and the Symbiote was a poisonous red parasite taking over.
Gwen Stacy's hands and feet were fused with the Hulk's chest as she absorbed and absorbed. Buried in scarlet flesh that was no longer clearly Rash or Hulk or anything that had once been Bruce Banner, she was dragging, molecule by molecule, Rash into her own Symbiote.
"Yesss…
Yes, take it.
Take him. Take all of him~!"
The black mass convulsed violently, veins of green gamma-light flashing beneath the surface like lightning under storm clouds.
Rash would not die without a fight. He had chosen this vessel for a reason. Gwen's Symbiote surged again and clashed. For a moment—just one impossible, breathtaking moment—they were at a stalemate.
But there was a reason Rash feared her. The black mass was receding.
Rash was being pulled apart, stripped from Bruce Banner's nervous system in violent threads, dragged screaming into Gwen's Symbiote like oil into flame. The Hulk's body faltered. His roar turned into something strangled.
THWANG—!
Spider-Sense was too busy to catch it. A circular blur of red, white, and blue slammed into Gwen's side.
Her Symbiote shrieked as vibranium met living matter, the shield embedding itself halfway into her ribs with a wet, metallic crunch. Gwen was ripped free from the Hulk mid-absorption and hurled sideways, smashing through the remaining facade of the skyscraper and tumbling end over end across the street below.
Gwen skidded through asphalt, sparks and blood trailing behind her. She panted and picked herself up.
Meanwhile, Rash recoiled and snapped back around Hulk's body defensively. Rash needed time to recover…!
The shield with the star tore free from Gwen's side with a violent yank and rocketed back into the sky.
Helicopter rotors thundered overhead.
One became three.
Then six.
Then more.
SHIELD gunships poured into the airspace from every direction, floodlights snapping on, targeting systems locking, weapons humming with restrained threat. Ropes dropped. Troops lined the open doors. Drones swarmed like hornets.
A Quinjet hovered above them all.
At its open ramp stood Captain America. Her shield already locked to her arm as she surveyed the devastation below with grim precision.
"Spider-Woman," Captain America's voice boomed over external speakers, amplified and iron-hard. "This is Captain Wilson of S.H.I.E.L.D. You are ordered to stand down. Now."
Gwen pushed herself up on shaking arms.
Blood dripped freely from her side, dark and thick, the Symbiote struggling to seal around the vibranium wound. Her breathing came in harsh, ragged pulls. Pain radiated through her torso with every movement—but rage burned hotter.
She looked up.
At the helicopters.
At the shield.
At her.
"Get out of my way," Gwen hissed.
Rash continued to recover what it had loss, covering the Hulk with every passing second, enraged but needing time. The fight wasn't over. Not even close.
Samantha was focused on Gwen. Everyone was.
"Negative," she said. "You're compromised. We're taking control of the situation."
Gwen staggered fully to her feet.
That was when it hit her. A piercing, high-frequency scream that made Gwen scream. Her Symbiote peeling back from her face as the frequency tore through her. She collapsed to her hands and knees, retching, claws scraping uselessly against concrete.
The high-frequency sound intensified.
Gwen clawed at her ears, teeth bared in agony. The scarlet Symbiote recoiled instinctively, exposing her fully. The blonde blue-eyed woman the world had seen on trial. The blonde that had been bitten by a radioactive spider and kick started everything that was.
Gwen Stacy was indeed underneath it all: sweat-soaked, bloodied, and eyes blazing with fury.
The helicopters were responsible for this. The helicopters were equipped with everything needed to stop her.
"Gah—!" Gwen choked, spitting blood. "You—! You traitor! Elsa… BROCK! ELSA BROCK!!!"