Harry Osborn had not left Manhattan. He was deeply worried about the safety of his father and his best friend, Peter. Initially, he had firmly believed that Peter would be able to defeat any enemy just as he had before. But this time, things seemed different. With the end of the blackout and Doctor Octopus announcing the occupation of all Manhattan, a "wall" of lightning stretching from the ground to the sky isolated the island from the outside world. it signaled the failure of Spider-Man and the triumph of the Sinister Six.
So, was Spider-Man dead?
Harry wasn't sure. He desperately hoped it wasn't true, but the facts suggested otherwise. He sat in a deserted clothing store near Osborn Tech, opening the sphere his father had given him to reveal its contents.
It was a vial of the Erskine Serum—the great creation that had birthed Captain America. Peter had once told him that this serum could make the good better and the bad worse. If he injected it himself...
No, no. Even if Captain America himself were here, he wouldn't be able to defeat the Sinister Six.
Harry sat in the clothing store, sighing in despair, when a sudden thought struck him.
"If Peter used this serum..."
What if Peter could accept this serum? Would he be able to defeat the Sinister Six then? But where was Peter? Was he even still alive? Had he been captured by the Sinister Six?
In that moment, Harry felt utterly isolated and helpless.
"No, I can't just stay here and wither away. I have to find a way out."
Driven by a sudden resolve, Harry slipped out of the clothing store. After a quick look around, he darted into a nearby alley. He didn't know where Peter might be, but Avengers Tower seemed like the most likely place. He took a deep breath, pulled up his hood just like in the movies, and walked with his head down.
Then, someone pelted his head with a stone.
"If you're trying to move stealthily, I guarantee you look incredibly conspicuous like that."
A manhole cover not far away was pushed aside, and Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, appeared. She looked at Harry and said, "Get in here, unless you want them to find you."
"Senior Felicia?"
Harry was surprised to see Felicia emerging from the underground. He hurriedly jumped down, landing heavily on his backside. He rubbed his rear as he stood up and asked, "What are you doing in the sewers?"
"Good question. Because others have stayed in the sewers before. Though, I'm talking about the guys currently causing havoc up there," Felicia said as she replaced the cover. She added, "They've taken Uncle Jonathan and Jessica."
"Hostages?"
Harry could understand why the Sinister Six would seize Jonathan Drew; after all, he was a top scientist at Osborn Tech. But he assumed they had taken Jessica to threaten Doctor Drew. Felicia didn't explain the details; they would find out soon enough anyway.
They walked a short distance through the sewer before Harry asked, "Peter... is he..."
"He's alive, but not exactly in great shape. Anyway, you'll see him in a moment. We've gathered a few people who can still act, but it's not enough to launch a counterattack. You won't believe what Otto Octavius has done."
They continued for a long time—so long that Harry began to feel uneasy. He couldn't help but glance at his surroundings before finally asking, "Is it safe enough here?"
"The sewers? Absolutely. You'd never believe how many layers of sewers have been piled on top of each other since the New Amsterdam era. No one in the world knows what this mess of a place actually looks like; no blueprint is ever accurate."
As they spoke, they stepped over a rotting, foul-smelling corpse that hadn't yet turned completely to bone. Harry flinched but quickly kept pace.
After walking a bit longer, he heard Peter's voice in discussion.
"Right, but if my genes didn't undergo any reversal because of it, then why..."
Peter was alive?
Harry looked over with immense joy. In what appeared to be a sewer maintenance station, a group of people were resting. As Harry walked in excitedly, he was stunned to find two Peter Parkers.
One was a Peter Parker in a spiritual state, floating to the side. The other was Spider-Man, Peter Parker, but there was something different about him: he was wearing a brand-new, white Spider-Man suit that looked like an inverted color scheme of the Venom suit.
Peter frowned helplessly and looked at his own body, only then noticing Harry's arrival. "Harry? You're in Manhattan?"
"Uh, yeah. What's going on with you?"
"Otto Octavius developed a new method of gene-reversal based on his research on Scorpion and Electro to strip me of my superpowers," Spirit Peter said with a shrug. "The good news is, he failed—my DNA didn't change. The bad news is, he also kind of succeeded—I don't have any powers."
"Then what's with the suit?"
"Peter fell unconscious after his fall. I tried to heal him," said Martin Li, Mister Negative, who was standing nearby. It was only today that he had learned Peter Parker was Spider-Man, and he was relieved that May Parker hadn't come to work today. "But... something unexpected happened. The symbiote residue in Peter's body was reversed, giving birth to a new symbiote. But he didn't wake up—well, his body didn't wake up."
However, his spirit had been awakened by Martin. Peter knew what this new symbiote suit was: it was the symbiote-killer, "Anti-Venom."
But for the moment, that didn't help much.
"I suspect your DNA is too complex to be neutralized by the retroviral reversal. Right now, the serum is in a suppressed state. If we can find a way to stimulate it, we might be able to reactivate your abilities."
Dr. Connors spoke from the side, then sighed helplessly. "But we lack a stimulus source."
"Would this work?"
Harry handed over the sphere. Connors froze for a moment and asked, "What is this?"
"The Erskine Serum. My father gave it to me."
"It might... Otto Octavius has proven the compatibility between the Erskine Serum and the Primal Strength project in many experiments." Dr. Connors finished, then shook his head again. "But that doesn't solve the other problem. If we want to use the Erskine Serum to activate Spider-Man's DNA... we need a massive amount of electricity."
And the electricity in Manhattan was entirely controlled by Electro.
"I have an idea," said the Peter floating in mid-air.