Something had happened to the X-Men.
Realizing this, Peter narrowed his eyes. If Otto was the one behind all of this, Peter would be wary, but if it was Kang, he would feel somewhat helpless. While Kang's personal combat prowess was mediocre, his reliance on time-travel technology and the Time Stone meant he could effectively appear at any time and in any place.
However, since the events at Limbo had concluded, Kang had not appeared on the Avengers' front lines for a long time. For him to show up now, could it mean...
"What are you thinking about! Spider-Man!"
His Spider-Sense warnings were no longer as agile as before, but with Venom assisting him, Peter still effortlessly withstood Scorpion's venomous stinger. He grabbed Scorpion by the tail and slammed him into the ground. It was at that moment that Peter finally caught a clear glimpse of Scorpion's face.
Compared to before, Scorpion's facial features now bore a much stronger resemblance to an actual scorpion, and his skin had turned green. Seeing this, Peter realized what kind of modification Scorpion had undergone. Much like the serum Dr. Connors had taken, he had been injected with the Erskine Serum.
"Well, Scorpion, looks like you haven't really... progressed much. What's the matter, didn't have enough for breakfast?"
Bolstered by Venom's enhancement, Peter's strength could not be suppressed by Scorpion even after the latter had received the Erskine Serum. However, Scorpion didn't need to be stronger. He simply looked at Spider-Man with a faint smile, and a moment later, Peter felt a profound sense of malice.
It felt as if something was nearby.
No, wait—it was the Spider-Sense warning! It was just blurred because it had been severely weakened by Scorpion's abilities. Peter dodged instinctively, but a surging, relentless torrent of lightning struck him at a speed his body could not react to.
Yet, Electro, who had struck Peter, did not laugh in triumph. Instead, he let out a wail of agony. Beneath Peter's Venom suit, he was also wearing the Velocity Suit. In the instant of contact, Venom had retracted to expose the Velocity Suit, which heavily drained Electro's current.
Conversely, Spider-Man was now brimming with electrical energy.
"Falling for the same trick every time, Dillon. Maybe you'll learn your lesson next time. And also..."
Peter sidestepped Rhino, who had charged out of nowhere. He looked at Rhino on the rooftop with some confusion. "Alexei, how did you even get up to the roof? I didn't see a transport plane capable of carrying you, unless..."
The suit's sonar system displayed the truth of the surroundings. Peter dodged rapidly; he felt like he had been punched, but the system showed no enemy in front of him. He began to fight according to the system's instructions. After all, there was no doubt that Otto was unlikely to hack into Ultron at this stage.
The Electro and Rhino before his eyes were fake; even Sandman was an illusion. The only ones actually present were Scorpion and Mysterio. Scorpion was responsible for suppressing Peter's Spider-Sense, while Mysterio had created the cluster of illusions from earlier. Even the suit's battery display was fake—Electro hadn't even arrived yet.
"Quentin, stop. Whatever Otto told you, it isn't true," Peter shouted toward Mysterio. Among all the members of the Sinister Six, Mysterio's reason for helping Otto was the one Peter understood the least. He had later questioned Shocker, who was behaving himself in his cell, but even the latter didn't know.
It could only be understood as Otto having performed some kind of brainwashing on Quentin.
"Stop? I won't listen to your lies anymore, Spider-Man!"
Mysterio emerged from a cloud of smoke, lightning converging in his hands as he struck Peter. Although the lightning didn't exist, under the weight of Mysterio's illusions, it felt like a real attack. Meanwhile, Scorpion "opened" his tail—literally.
A powerful sonic weapon blasted Peter instantly. However, the enhanced Venom suit gradually pushed forward. Venom was confident it could thoroughly crush this damn Scorpion before it lost its ability to maintain its form.
However, everything changed.
Mysterio suddenly withdrew the illusions, forcing Peter to see the reality around him. Up in the air, the real Electro was flying, channeling his lightning into every building and transformer station in Manhattan, letting out a frantic laugh.
Then, an unprecedented lightning storm swept across all of Manhattan. The Daily Bugle, which had been broadcasting Spider-Man's battle against the Sinister Six, lost its signal. A Daily Bugle news helicopter, struck by the electromagnetic storm, lost power and began to plummet straight down. Seeing the danger, Peter immediately sprinted forward, evading Scorpion's attack. Within Mysterio's lingering illusory field, he relied on his memory and calculations to lunge toward the falling helicopter.
He leaped, jumping out of Mysterio's range of influence. Mid-air, he rapidly fired various webs to slow the helicopter's descent before diving inside, planning to save the pilot, photographer, and reporter first before bringing the craft to a halt.
But the moment he dove into the cabin, his neck was seized by a mechanical tentacle. Doctor Octopus, who had already killed everyone else on board, smiled at Peter. "Hello, Spider-Man. Honestly, your behavioral patterns are too easy to predict. Give you a target, and you can't help but dive right in."
"Is that so, Otto?"
Bio-electricity erupted in an instant, but it was easily filtered out by Otto. He smiled dismissively. "Look at you. What do you think you can achieve? You are the one being observed, and I... I am the one who has been studying you."
Tentacles condensed from Venom sprouted from Peter's back and began attacking Otto directly. Otto dodged effortlessly; his own tentacles were likewise covered in a red artificial symbiote. Not only that, he reached out and directly caught the punch Peter threw his way.
"And now, my hands are free to move, Spider-Man."
"You know, ever since I studied the symbiotes at the bottom of the Hudson River, I've been researching their weaknesses. I specifically thought about how I would deal with these creatures if they ever became our enemies. Fortunately, after the symbiote invasion, I discovered a way to artificially breed them... and found their other weaknesses besides fire and sound."
"As a molecular biologist, I wondered: what happens to a symbiote if it enters a state of molecular instability?"
Otto smiled.