When Spider-Man woke up, he found himself lying at the end of a dark alley. The faint beam of a flashlight swayed ahead of him, while piercing screams echoed in his ears. Spider-Man blurted out, "Stop..."
But his voice was nowhere near as strong as usual. More than half of it was breathy, making it sound less like a command and more like a plea.
Spider-Man realized he couldn't move.
The instant he made a sound, the flashlight beam swung in his direction. As his vision brightened, Spider-Man barely made out several half-grown children standing by the wall. The oldest looked thirteen or fourteen, while the youngest was probably only around ten.
They were beating up a child much younger than themselves.
Spider-Man had initially thought it was just ordinary roughhousing between children, or at worst, group bullying, until he saw the bloodstained Crowbar in the oldest child's hand.
Sticky, cold liquid trickled down from his temple. Only then did Spider-Man realize he had changed bodies. After the initial panic faded, he noticed that he couldn't see out of one eye, while the view from the other kept swaying.
Bang!
The Crowbar smashed brutally into the head of the child being surrounded and beaten. After one final scream, he died.
The others walked toward Spider-Man. Fear spread through his heart as he struggled with all his strength, but there were few limbs left that he could control. More than half of his body had gone completely numb.
Spider-Man opened his mouth, but he couldn't form a complete sentence. He only heard the older child leading them say, "If you don't want to die, don't steal in your next life!"
Bang!
Spider-Man lost consciousness. After a long darkness, he found himself in a dimly lit room. His right leg hurt terribly,