Captain Stacy frowned as he stepped into another bedroom.
His partner was already inside, sweeping a flashlight across another body lying on the floor.
Another victim?
Stacy raised his own flashlight.
The body belonged to a young white male with short blond hair and a face covered in freckles.
“…His face looks familiar.”
He frowned, trying to remember.
“I’ve definitely seen this kid before.”
A moment later, it came back to him.
Two weeks earlier, he had watched a classroom documentary filmed by his daughter, Gwen.
The blond hair.
The freckles.
The facial features.
Everything matched perfectly.
The boy’s name was Karl King.
Gwen had mentioned that he was one of the most unpopular students in her class and frequently bullied other kids.
After more than twenty years as a police officer, Captain Stacy had developed a habit of paying close attention to school bullies.
From experience, he knew many of them eventually became criminals.
That was why he remembered Karl King’s name so clearly.
But at that exact moment—
Something horrifying happened.
The instant Captain Stacy spoke Karl King’s name aloud, the empty human skin lying on the floor suddenly twitched.
“What the hell?!”
Stacy instinctively jumped backward, raising his pistol as his finger tightened around the trigger.
Before he could react further—
His partner screamed from the next room.
“My God!”
“Captain!”
“There are spiders!”
“So many spiders!”
Stacy immediately spun around.
The sight before him sent a chill down his spine.
Countless tiny spiders were pouring from the ceiling.
Like a living black tide, they flooded across the room before swarming toward Karl King’s hollow skin.
Under the horrified gaze of the two police officers, the empty skin rapidly began to inflate.
Like a balloon filling with air…
It quickly regained the shape of a human body.
But it was no longer human.
Its eye sockets weren’t filled with normal eyes.
Instead…
Hundreds of tiny spider eyes writhed together in dense, twitching clusters.
The creature looked like something straight out of a nightmare.
Captain Stacy didn’t hesitate.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
He emptied his entire magazine into the monster.
The bullets tore straight through its body.
Yet before they could even hit the wall behind it, strands of gray spider silk rapidly stitched every bullet hole shut.
Not a single wound remained.
“You look…
delicious.”
The creature’s hollow voice echoed through the apartment.
“But…”
“I’m already full.”
Then, with terrifying agility, it crawled through the broken window and disappeared up the side of the apartment building.
Captain Stacy rushed to the window.
He watched the monster vanish across the rooftops before grabbing his radio.
“We need immediate backup!”
…
A minute and a half later—
The first person to arrive wasn’t an NYPD patrol officer.
It was Spider-Man.
The roar of an engine echoed through the street as a sleek Spider-Motorcycle raced toward the apartment building.
Spider-Man had arrived.
Right on time.
Captain Stacy blinked.
*Since when does Spider-Man ride a motorcycle?*
As much as he hated admitting it…
It looked incredibly cool.
“Damn it!”
Captain Stacy shouted.
“57th Street!”
“Watch out!”
“That monster is made entirely of spiders!”
Peter accelerated without slowing down.
“Thanks for the warning, Captain!”
His voice echoed behind him as the Spider-Motorcycle shot down the street in pursuit of Karl King.
…
Midnight.
The empty streets of New York became the stage for a high-speed chase.
Karl’s mutated spider swarm could produce webs as well.
Using countless strands of gray spider silk, he swung rapidly between skyscrapers.
Unlike Peter’s clean white webs, Karl’s were dark gray.
They looked filthy.
And even from a distance…
They carried the unmistakable stench of decay.
*Damn it…*
Peter frowned beneath his mask.
*I already destroyed the mutated spider’s corpse.*
*So how did Karl still become the Spider Swarm?*
*Did I overlook something important?*
For the first time, Peter truly understood something.
The multiverse was unpredictable.
His arrival had already begun changing the timeline.
Like countless butterfly effects spreading outward, the future was slowly drifting away from the memories he relied on.
And the longer he stayed…
The greater those changes would become.
*Whatever.*
*I’ll deal with it.*
*Every person that swarm devours makes it stronger.*
*I can’t let it continue growing.*
Peter twisted the throttle.
The Spider-Motorcycle roared like a steel beast as it rapidly closed the distance.
Ahead of him, Karl glanced over his shoulder.
Hundreds of tiny spider eyes locked directly onto Peter.
“Spider-Man…”
His hollow voice drifted through the night air.
“We finally meet.”
Peter’s expression remained calm.
“Stop now.”
“This is your last chance.”
Karl didn’t answer. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Instead—
His entire body suddenly exploded apart.
Thousands upon thousands of spiders scattered into the air, forming a massive black cloud.
Thwip!
Thwip!
Peter instantly fired two webs.
Both shot straight through the center of the swarm.
Neither hit anything.
Peter frowned.
*He can completely disperse his body to avoid physical attacks…*
*That’s going to be troublesome.*
Karl’s abilities were proving far more dangerous than Peter had expected.
A moment later, the cloud of spiders gathered again atop a nearby rooftop.
Gray spider silk rapidly stitched the hollow skin back together.
Within seconds, Karl stood there once more.
“Admit it, Spider-Man.”
“My evolution surpasses yours.”
“I am the more perfect life-form.”
Peter smiled beneath his mask.
“Haven’t you ever heard the saying?”
“Villains always die because they talk too much.”
Without hesitation, Peter fired a web at a nearby metal trash can.
With a powerful swing, he hurled it straight toward Karl.
Whoosh!
Karl calmly split his entire body in half vertically.
The trash can passed harmlessly through the opening.
An instant later, the two halves merged together again.
Without stopping, Karl fired another web and continued fleeing.
Peter immediately understood his plan.
Karl wasn’t trying to win.
Not yet.
He knew he wasn’t strong enough to defeat Spider-Man.
His goal was to escape.
To consume more victims.
To become an unstoppable swarm.
The chase continued across block after block.
Then—
Peter noticed a familiar building rising in the distance.
A towering glass skyscraper.
At its peak stood a massive glowing “A.”
Stark Tower.
The headquarters of the Avengers.
Suddenly—
A streak of red and gold blasted out from beneath the giant Avengers logo.
It wasn’t a missile.
Nor was it an aircraft.
It was a man clad in red-and-gold armor.
Iron Man.
He had officially entered the battle.
Leaving a blazing trail of jet exhaust behind him, Iron Man soared through the night sky before slowing to a hover directly above Peter.
“Hey, kid.”
Tony Stark’s unmistakable voice echoed from inside the armored suit.
“Looks like you could use a little backup.”
He glanced down at the speeding Spider-Motorcycle.
“But next time you decide to turn my neighborhood into a racetrack…”
“…give me a heads-up first.”
This was the very first meeting…
Between Iron Man and Spider-Man.