As soon as Ethan dodged the exploding web, a red-and-blue figure dropped from the rooftop, landing with a heavy thud in front of him.
Peter Parker's eyes were blazing behind his mask.
He had tracked the scene from the rooftops, following a lead on the fake webbing and the reports of another "Spider-Man" spotted downtown. But what he saw next shattered any doubt: Ethanwho Peter now knew was the current host of the alien symbiotesnapped the necks of two men like it was nothing.
From Peter's perspective, that was murder. No questions asked. No restraint. Just cold execution.
Before arriving, Peter had briefly crossed paths with the demonic entity he now knew as the "Evil Ghost." The creature had evaded him, but not before blurting out the name of the one who had used similar spider silk: Venom.
And now, Peter stood face to face with him.
"You're not just an imposter," Peter growled. "You're a murderer. And I'm going to make sure you spend the rest of your life behind bars."
His voice was sharp and cutting, not his usual quippy banter. He wasn't in the mood.
"Huh?" Ethan blinked, momentarily caught off guard by Peter's fury. "What are you even talking about?"
But as he replayed the past few minutes in his mindthe alley, the woman he saved, the corpsesrealization hit him.
Peter had seen the end of the story without the beginning.
Just as Ethan opened his mouth to explain, Peter launched himself forward without warning, fists flying.
"This idiot didn't even stop to think!" Venom's voice snarled in Ethan's mind. "Is this what passes for logic in red spandex?"
"Damn it," Ethan muttered. "You want to fight? Fine. Let's go."
Peter's punch came hard and fast, but Ethan caught it with his left hand and countered with a brutal right hook to Peter's abdomen, forcing him to stumble backward in pain.
Peter gritted his teeth and retaliated, firing twin webs from his wrists at Ethan. The white strands shot out like darts, but Ethan twisted aside, dodging them effortlessly.
"Behind!"
Venom's warning rang through Ethan's mind just in time. He leapt upward as a massive trash canslung at him with Peter's webbinghurtled toward where he'd just stood. It crashed into the alley wall, splintering the wooden paneling.
Landing smoothly, Ethan barely had time to prepare before Peter flipped onto the top of the same trash can and lunged again.
This time, Ethan fired a strand of his own spider silk toward Peter's legs. But Peter's spider-sense tingled, and he flipped sideways, narrowly avoiding the trip.
They circled each other, exchanging attacks in a fast-paced, acrobatic flurry that lit the alley with movement. Each fighter's reflexes bordered on precognitiondodging, countering, maneuvering in perfect rhythm.
Both of them realized the same truth: conventional attacks wouldn't work.
Peter moved in again, but Ethan didn't wait. Instead, black symbiote tendrils exploded from his back in all directionswhip-like appendages snapping outward with surgical speed.
Caught off guard, Peter was too slow this time. One tendril coiled around his arm, another around his leg, and before he could break free, two more had locked around his chest.
He struggled fiercely, relying on his enhanced strength to tear free, but then Ethan surged forward and delivered a solid kick to Peter's side. The force knocked him off balance, and he hit the ground hard.
With the web-slinger down, Ethan's tendrils wrapped around his limbs and yanked him upward, suspending him upside down in mid-air like a cocooned criminal.
Peter groaned in frustration, dangling. "Okay, I'll admit… this feels weird."
He squinted downward at Ethan. "I'm usually the one doing the hanging."
Ethan didn't laugh. Instead, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a phone, flipping through its screen. He brought up a recorded video and rotated the device so that Peter could see iteven upside down.
The video was clear. The two men Ethan had just killed were on camera, visibly terrified, confessing their crimes. They described previous assaults, thefts, and even a suicide caused by their abuse.
The date and timestamp were from just moments ago.
"I left this phone on them so the cops would find it," Ethan said flatly. "But seeing as you were so quick to throw around accusations, I figured you should see it first."
Peter's breath caught as he processed what he was seeing. His moral compass reeled, caught between his belief in justiceand the dark finality of what Ethan had done.
"They confessed?" Peter asked, still hanging upside down, tone shifting from anger to uncertainty.
"They were scum. Caught red-handed. No mercy. No justice system loopholes," Ethan replied. "I stopped them before they could hurt anyone else."
Venom's voice oozed into Peter's mind through the tendrils. "You think we're like them? You wear a mask and judge. We are justice, not a costume."
Peter remained silent.
The wind rustled down the alleyway. For a moment, all they heard was the distant hum of the city.
Peter's mind raced. He'd wanted a fight. Now he had to ask himself if he was wrong from the beginning.
And Ethan?
He just waited.
Chapter 55 – A Tangle of Justice
As Peter watched the two men in the video, their confessions pouring out in disgusting detail, the anger burning in his chest slowly began to cool. Behind the mask, his jaw slackened slightly. He still didn't condone Ethan's actionskilling wasn't justicebut he could no longer see the situation in black and white. These weren't innocent men.
"Mr. Spider-Man," Ethan said calmly, his tone devoid of mockery as the video ended, "do you understand now? Before you arrived, those two were trying to assault a woman. I got there just in time."
Peter clenched his fists, his voice low but steady. "Even so… you should have handed them over to the police. No onenot even youhas the right to decide who lives or dies."
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "And does the law give you the right to swing around the city without jurisdiction? Web people up and drop them off at the nearest station like gift-wrapped presents?"
Peter hesitated.
"We're both working outside the law," Ethan continued, voice level. "The difference is, you still pretend there's a system that can handle monsters like those. I don't. I've seen what happens when they're left alive. They hurt more people. The woman I saved tonight wouldn't have been their last victim. Killing them was the cleanest end."
Peter didn't respond right away. Ethan stepped closer, his voice lowering as he added, "They admitted to over ten attacks. One of their victims committed suicide. And they would've done it again tonight. You think throwing them behind bars would stop that?"
Peter's silence was all the answer Ethan needed.
"We have different methods, that's all," Ethan said. "You believe in trials and cells. I believe in finality. You stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours."
He tossed the phone to the ground with a dull clack. "You like working with cops? Then give them that."
He turned to leavebut Peter, still hanging upside down in the webbing, called after him.
"Wait! If you didn't rob the museum, then why were there spider threadsyour threadson the ceiling? You were impersonating me!"
Ethan stopped mid-step. He turned his head slightly. "You mean that museum robbery with the so-called 'Spider-Man' making off with some priceless sculpture?"
Peter nodded, even though it was hard to tell while upside down.
"I saw that on the morning news," Ethan said with a hint of annoyance. "That wasn't me. I don't steal. And I sure as hell don't play dress-up pretending to be someone I don't even like."
Peter narrowed his eyes. "But the spider webs"
"Mine are different," Ethan interrupted. "I may shoot webbing, but I'm not Spider-Man. I have my own name. I'm Venom."
As if to prove it, Ethan flicked his wrist. A glob of inky black spider silk splashed onto the nearby wall and formed the word VENOM in thick script.
"And thanks to you," Ethan added, "I'm switching all my webbing to black. Don't want to be mistaken for a Boy Scout again."
He turned toward the open alleyway, webbed a rooftop ledge, and prepared to swing off. "Goodbye, Spider-Man."
Peter called out again, this time more desperate. "Wait! I'm sorry. I… I misjudged you. But I need your help. Whoever framed me is still out there."
Ethan paused mid-swing. "It'll dissolve in ten minutes," he said simply, referring to the webbing binding Peter. Then he launched himself into the shadows without looking back.
Peter hung there, motionless.
"…So that's what it feels like to be left hanging," he muttered. "No wonder the bad guys hate it."
The black figure vanished into the night, and Peter's thoughts spun like a storm. Venom wasn't behind the robbery. The webbing at the museum was whitejust like Peter'sbut Ethan had now made a point of switching to black. That alone narrowed things down.
"He said his silk dissolves on its own," Peter murmured. "Then whoever left those webs at the museum… it wasn't Venom."
His eyes narrowed behind the mask. "So who the hell was it?"
Even bound and upside down, Peter's brain ran through a mental list of known enemies, copycats, and tech users who could fake his powers.
Meanwhile, Ethan was already two alleys away, swinging toward home with practiced ease. He landed in a quiet courtyard, pulled off his mask, and let out a breath.
"That went better than expected," he muttered.
"His face when you showed the videopriceless!" Venom crowed in his mind. "I wish I could've taken a picture."
Ethan shook his head with a smirk.
"You're enjoying this too much."
"Did you see how red he got under that mask? And the upside-down guilt trip? I'm putting that on a mental replay."
Ethan chuckled dryly. "You laugh now, but you do realize this means someone is impersonating Spider-Man. That's dangerous."
"Dangerous? Maybe." Venom licked its metaphorical lips. "But it also means we're not the only ones out at night… and that could get interesting."
Back in the alley, Peter finally felt the strands around his arms loosening, just as Venom had promised. He dropped to the ground and landed on his feet.
His gaze lifted to the rooftops where Ethan had disappeared.
One thing was certain: the real imposter was still out there.
And Spider-Man had no intention of letting them get away with it.