"Everything you gave me is amazing~"
Gwen lifted her wrist and admired the sleek new web-shooters. The smooth metallic finish gleamed under the moonlight, and the fluid motion of the trigger made her feel like a pro. She couldn't stop smiling. Knowing this came from Jack Kadere only made her heart flutter more.
"Let's focus on the bigger problem for now, Gwen," Jessica Jones interrupted, eyes narrowed toward the chaos ahead. "That black sludge—whatever it is—is beating the crap out of Peter. Should we save him or what?"
"Oh, right! Peter! I almost forgot about him."
It wasn't Gwen's fault. Peter now looked like some mutated reptilian creature—green scales, distorted posture—it was easy to mistake him for Connors' failed Lizard form rather than Spider-Man himself.
Gwen squinted at the two figures locked in a vicious tangle: the hulking black entity and the scaly, green pseudo-lizard. "I have no idea what happened to Peter, but that black creature's obviously the bigger threat. We've got to separate them first."
She didn't trust the alien goo—Venom—especially compared to Peter, who at least still had some semblance of humanity left. Whatever he'd become, he had helped foil Curt Connors' mad plan.
"Leave it to me!" Jessica declared, raising her lightsaber confidently. "Watch as I slice that thing in half!"
Sensing imminent danger from behind, Venom released Peter and leapt away in a blur of black muscle. The impact of his landing cracked the pavement nearby as he turned to face his new enemy.
"Jessica Jones... the so-called 'Knight of Hell'..."
"And the Ghost Spider..."
Thompson, now under full influence of the Venom symbiote, snarled and suddenly roared with rage, "You're all in on it! You could've saved me that day!"
His voice echoed through the night. "You and Peter—you're working together, aren't you? You left me to rot on purpose!"
"Wait—this one talks?" Jessica blinked, confused but intrigued. "Who even are you?"
"I AM VENOM!" Thompson bellowed. "And you… will know true pain!"
His voice warped again, the guttural tone slipping into something bizarre and primal. "Ka...si...!"
Jessica raised an eyebrow. "Okay, now you're just mumbling nonsense."
But she didn't hesitate. She leapt toward him, lightsaber raised high. "The Force isn't with you today."
The deep blue blade sang through the night as she swung downward. A wave of searing energy arced toward Venom.
But Venom was fast—faster than anything Jessica had fought. With a snap of his legs, he dodged cleanly and lunged back toward Peter.
"Hey!" Peter shouted, charging forward. "Do I look like I'm done yet?!"
Scales regrew across Peter's battered frame as he fought Venom off. Claws slashed, muscles strained. The black tendrils pulled, coiled, and struck back with equal fury.
Peter gritted his teeth. He was getting shredded, again.
...Because, well, he still couldn't beat Venom.
Thankfully, Jessica wasn't far behind. Her blade came crashing in from the side, slicing clean through Venom's outer layer. But the dark symbiote recoiled just before the heat could do real damage.
Its response was instant—tentacles retreating, healing over.
Jessica frowned. "I'm only grazing the surface. This thing's avoiding the saber—it knows it burns."
Strike after strike, she tried to pierce deeper, but Thompson was moving erratically within the creature, like he was still conscious—still resisting.
Seeing how ineffective their attacks were, Gwen stepped forward. "Looks like I need to step in too—"
But then it hit her.
Her Spider-Sense exploded like sirens in her skull.
Without hesitation, she fired a strand of webbing to the side of the building and yanked herself out of the way—
Ding-dong!
A metallic clink rang out behind her. Something small had hit the rooftop.
Then— BOOM!
A fiery orange blast ripped through the night air, and shimmering sparks burst like fireworks across the skyline.
It was a pumpkin bomb.
"Spider!" a familiar, manic voice cackled. "Hehehe!"
Harry Osborn appeared from the shadows, gliding in on a high-tech, goblin-themed glider with a sinister smirk across his face.
He hadn't forgotten his father Norman's secret will.
If he could obtain Spider-Man's blood, he might unlock a cure for the Osborn family's deteriorating genetic condition.
"Green Goblin!" Gwen shouted.
She didn't waste time talking. In one smooth motion, she raised both hands and fired two webs toward Harry's glider.
Thwip! Thwip!
The upgraded web-shooters fired with pinpoint accuracy, and the sticky strands latched onto the sides of Harry's glider.
But Harry didn't panic.
Just as Gwen braced herself to yank him down, the front of the glider hissed—and two mini-rockets launched from hidden compartments.
"Missiles—!" Gwen hissed.
Reacting instinctively, she detached her webs and flipped off the rooftop, the micro-missiles screaming past her.
She didn't fall far—her fingers adhered to the sheer side of the building, sticking her safely to the outer wall.
Boom! Boom!
Twin blasts echoed overhead.
Her spider-sense buzzed faintly—no immediate danger.
With fluid grace, Gwen flipped back upward, vaulting over the ledge with practiced ease. But the scene awaiting her on the rooftop stopped her cold.
"—No!"
Connors—the Lizard—was struggling inside a cocoon of spider silk, and standing over him was Harry, now wielding a green arm-blade, carving into the sticky webbing to set him loose.
"Not happening."
Without hesitation, Gwen hurled one of her compact spider-silk bombs—courtesy of Jack Kadere—straight at Harry.
The orb struck true.
Harry sneered. "You think that can stop me?"
With a slash of his goblin blade, he split the ball mid-air—
Fwoosh!
Too late.
It burst apart, unleashing a tangle of pressurized spider-webbing.
"Damn it! DAMN IT!" Harry roared as the webbing wrapped around him and anchored him to the rooftop, binding his limbs.
But Gwen's relief didn't last long.
Connors snarled as the last strands of silk fell away from his scaly form.
In one terrifying surge of brute force, both the Green Goblin and the Lizard broke free from their restraints—just as Gwen's web line swung her into the middle of it.
"Not good…!"