The bullet was barely ten feet from Olivia’s forehead when a deafening, sharp metallic clang ripped through the command center.
Olivia gasped, instinctively throwing her hands up to shield her face, but the fatal blow never landed.
Dangling upside down from the ceiling, Spider-Man Noir narrowed his eyes behind his dark goggles, a razor-sharp glint of realization flashing in the lenses.
His superhuman kinetic vision had captured exactly what just happened.
The heavy-caliber slug hadn’t missed; it had been sliced perfectly in half mid-air by a razor-edged metal playing card.
“Wow!
A Spider-Man packing a revolver?
Now that is something I absolutely love!” a deeply hoarse, raspy voice echoed from the shadows.
A bald man wearing a heavy black trench coat swaggered out from behind the control room door, casually rolling a metal Ace of Spades between his knuckles.
Right dead in the center of his forehead was a carved, circular scar—a perfect bullseye.
He stared up at Noir as if looking at a shiny new toy.
From the master console, Thomas waved a massive, meaty finger, his voice booming with authority.
“You have exactly three minutes.
For every Spider-Man you kill, I am adding a ten-million-dollar bounty to your payout.”
“Okay, Boss.
You might want to start writing that check right now,” Bullseye smirked.
Noir didn’t hesitate, fanning the hammer of his revolver to fire three rapid shots.
But with terrifying precision, the bald assassin flicked his wrist, tossing three metal playing cards that perfectly intercepted and shattered the bullets mid-air.
“Bullseye.
In any era, you are as greedy as a vulture,” Noir muttered.
He knew instantly that he had met his match.
He was facing a world-class mercenary capable of turning a simple pencil into a lethal weapon with perfect aim.
As Bullseye raised his hand for another volley, Noir released his webline and plummeted into a free-fall.
The assassin vaulted over the railing without a second thought, diving right after him.
Their descent transformed into a breathtaking, high-speed firefight.
The whistling shrieks of ricocheting bullets and slicing metal cards tore through the cavernous test site as the two ranged masters clashed.
A single mistake from either of them meant instant death.
Meanwhile, with Thomas and Doc Ock entirely distracted by the chaos, Miles cautiously peeked out from the shattered exhaust vent.
Confirming the coast was clear, the teenager scrambled out and dropped silently toward the collider’s backup control panel, relying completely on his newly mastered invisibility.
He reached the terminal, his heart hammering as he noticed the deep, tragic impact marks left behind by the fallen Spider-Man of this universe. Read this novel at novelping(.)com for the best experience.
Taking a deep breath, Miles pushed hard, lifting the heavy alloy access plate.
But right at that moment, an agonizing electric jolt surged through his skull.
His Spider-Sense!
Miles instinctively threw his arms up in a defensive guard just as a massive force exploded against him.
A monstrous, winged creature covered in ghastly green scales and sporting a twisted, demonic visage slammed into the invisible boy, sending him flying through the air.
It was the Green Goblin, back in action.
The monstrous mutation had granted the Goblin an incredibly keen sense of smell, rendering Miles’s optical camouflage completely useless the second he left the scent-masking confines of the air ducts.
The brutal impact sent the crucial override key flying from Miles’s grasp.
But just before it tumbled into the abyss, a lifeline of white webbing snatched it out of the air.
Gwen—the crucial seventh member—had been waiting in the shadows.
She swung out from a corner of the massive collider, using the rebounding web to snap the drive securely into her hand.
Spotting yet another Spider-hero crashing the party, Olivia let out a frustrated groan, feeling a massive headache coming on.
She abandoned the terminal and charged headlong toward Gwen, her eight massive tentacles thrashing violently to take down the newly arrived Spider-Woman.
But before Doc Ock could close the distance, a colossal red-and-blue mechanical fist plummeted from the ceiling, slamming into the scientist and sending her skidding backward across the platform.
“Behold the iron fist of technology, Ms.
Octopus!” Peni Parker cheered, making her grand entrance from the cockpit of her towering SP//dr mech.
“I despise you,” Olivia hissed, pushing herself up and adjusting her skewed glasses.
“A Spider-Man hiding inside a robot isn’t a real Spider-Man.”
Peni didn’t miss a beat, her verbal skills just as formidable as any other web-slinger.
“Wow, sounds like someone is a little jealous.
Why don’t you just build your own giant octopus robot?
What, is your tech a little lacking?”
“Shut up!
I can build one whenever I want!” Olivia screamed, launching her tentacles in a furious barrage against the heavy armor of the Spider-mech.
With Olivia occupied, Gwen turned to finish the mission, but a heavy, earth-shaking thud stopped her cold.
She turned to see Thomas, having discarded his suit jacket, leaping directly from the control room onto the collider ring.
The massive super-melee had fully erupted, and they only had one minute left before the particle collider activated.
***
Across the cavern, the rest of the team was fighting their own desperate battles.
The older Peter Parker was dodging lethal strikes from the Scorpion.
Unlike the standard genetic mutation, this universe’s Scorpion was a cybernetic nightmare.
His lower half had been completely replaced by a heavily armored, four-legged mechanical chassis complete with a lethal tail, and his left arm was a massive mechanical pincer.
Nearby, Spider-Ham was somehow managing to defy all known laws of physics.
Wielding a massive, oversized cartoon mallet, the pig was surprisingly overpowering Tombstone.
The pale, supposedly invulnerable mob enforcer was already covered in comical bumps and bruises, making him the most thoroughly humiliated supervillain on the field.
Meanwhile, Peter was engaged in a blistering, high-speed chase with the Prowler.
From the subway tunnels out onto the open test site, the Prowler was relentless.
His razor-sharp claws, capable of easily slicing through reinforced steel, paired with his energy-propelled boots, made him an incredibly dangerous threat.
But Peter remained in complete control, defaulting to his greatest weapon: non-stop trash talk.
“Have you ever thought that with this kind of gear, you could make a really good living delivering takeout?” Peter quipped while gracefully dodging a lethal swipe.
“Why risk your life being a lackey for Thomas?”
“Shut up!
You damn bug!” Prowler roared.
“See, this is what happens when you drop out of school early,” Peter fired back smoothly.
“You end up with a severe lack of basic biological knowledge.
Spiders are arachnids, not insects!”
“I don’t care about arachnids, just shut up!” Prowler yelled, his head pounding with sheer frustration.
Even though the Prowler had considerable experience fighting this universe’s Spider-Man, he was being thrown completely off balance by Peter’s relentless, superior banter.
In that brief, blinding moment of distraction, Peter made his move.
He shot a thick line of webbing straight up into the darkness of the ceiling, grabbed it, and pulled down with every ounce of his superhuman strength.
The Prowler’s vision blurred as a massive, pre-woven trap plummeted from the shadows.
Before he could even process what was happening, he found himself completely ensnared.
The strands of silk Peter had been covertly shooting during their chase intertwined and overlapped, forming a dense, three-dimensional spider web that left the lethal mercenary hanging helplessly above the battlefield.