Carl clumsily imitated Spider-Man's posture, swinging between buildings on webs. His movements were awkward yet powerful; every time he soared into the air, he could feel the wind passing through his cheap cosplay suit, the icy chill pouring into the gaps in his body.
The changes brought by devouring fascinated him—his mother's flesh and blood, the screams of those geeks in the comic shop, all of it had become power flowing through his veins. He could feel his muscles restructuring, his bones stretching. He could even break down into a swarm of spiders at will, or twist himself into any face he had "digested."
And at this moment, the only thing in his mind was Peter Parker's hateful face.
That scrawny Peter had gotten bitten by a spider and become full of himself. He had actually dared to resist him, even dared to make him worry.
"Getting bitten by a spider makes you think you can fight me?" Carl sneered, tightening his grip on the web as his cheap uniform flapped loudly in the wind. Dad had been right: the strong devoured the weak—that was the truth. Those little runts had been born to serve as stepping stones for the strong.
"Time for you to learn who the boss is, Parker."
And so this clumsy Spider-Man began to roam. He suddenly turned in midair, his crimson lenses reflecting another swinging figure in the distance. Heh, what an obvious target.
Found you, Parker!
"We found Spider-Man!"
Inside the secret van on the other side, Quentin Beck spotted Spider-Man heading back, but something seemed off. "This Spider-Man doesn't seem right. He's changed back into his old suit."
Quentin, sensing that something was wrong, grew confused, while Chameleon asked only one question.
"Is Spider-Man swinging through the sky, or running on the ground?"
"Swinging through the air..."
"Then that's him. He just changed back into his old suit." Chameleon paid it no mind. "Probably to distinguish himself from me. We're wearing his current new suits and impersonating him, so he has to make himself stand out somehow. But it doesn't matter. Spider-Man will soon fall into the abyss of death. Set up the projectors, Beck. We're getting to work."
As he spoke, Chameleon picked up a pistol. This time, he would get rid of Spider-Man once and for all.
Carl swiftly landed and looked at the fake Spider-Man before him. At this moment, he had yet to realize that the one in front of him was not the real Spider-Man. On the other hand, because interaction was required, Chameleon had filled in the parts that had originally been mere projections. The Spider-Man appearing now was Chameleon in disguise.
"Another impostor?" "Spider-Man" looked at Carl and cried out, then helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead. "Oh my God. I mean, hey, buddy, is there no end to this? You know I'm the real Spider-Man."
"You? You're nothing but a complete bastard!"
Carl clenched his fists and charged at Chameleon. Chameleon laughed, instantly drew his pistol, and fired a shot straight at Spider-Man's head. The bullet pierced Spider-Man's skull with perfect accuracy. Then Chameleon shut off the projector and, maintaining Spider-Man's appearance and tone, said, "Sorry, man. It's all over. We don't even need Kingpin's plan."
"It is time for this to end!"
The sudden roar interrupted Chameleon. He turned to see the Spider-Man suit rapidly collapse, countless spiders pouring out from within and crawling toward him. After less than 0.1 seconds of thought, he immediately turned and ran, terror filling his eyes.
Fuck, why hadn't anyone told him that this so-called Spider-Man was that kind of thing?
After chasing him for a short while, Carl realized that spiders really did seem slower than humans. So the swarm poured back into that cheap costume, reforming into a human shape, and began swinging on webs to hunt Chameleon down.
"What are you running from, huh? Aren't you Spider-Man? Why are you running away? Hahahahaha!"
Carl shouted arrogantly as he chased Chameleon. Quick on his feet, Chameleon immediately darted into a construction site. There was no one inside, but several hundred kilograms of explosives had been buried there.
"Hey, damn detective, are the explosives ready or not? You have no fucking idea what Spider-Man even is."
Chameleon, panting as he reached the ambush site, couldn't help asking. McDonald let out a cold laugh. He had said long ago that Spider-Man would come, but Chameleon hadn't listened. Well, look at him now—he had gotten himself into serious trouble.
"They've been ready for a while. You'd better run. If you don't, you'll die right in front of me."
Chameleon rested briefly, found the escape route he had prepared, and watched Spider-Man swing inside. For some reason, this spider monster gave him a very strange feeling, but it didn't matter.
It had to die here today.
"Why aren't you running, Spider-Man? Do you know you're bound to die?"
"What? Bound to die?" Chameleon felt happier than he ever had while pretending to be Spider-Man. He leaped backward, and his gliding wingsuit unfolded. "That's for you, baby!"
A violent explosion engulfed the entire building in an instant. First, the gas pipes in the basement erupted in blue flames; then the support beams snapped one after another like dominoes. Every floor was rapidly blasted apart, set ablaze, and collapsed. Massive clouds of dust rose up, swallowing Carl's laughter and obscuring nearly half the sky. The thirty-story building, carrying tens of thousands of tons of steel reinforcement, came crashing down and smashed brutally onto "Spider-Man," burying it completely. Having accomplished all this, Chameleon gliding through the sky couldn't help bursting into laughter.
"I did it! I did—"
A specially made bullet arrived with the gunshot and struck Chameleon in the sky. The unlucky man fell from the air and slammed hard into the edge of the rubble.
Only then did Spider-Man arrive late and land beside The Punisher. Peter had seen the rising dust cloud from far away and couldn't understand how things had ended up like this before he even arrived.
"Uh... what happened? How did things turn out like this already?"
If he hadn't received a call beforehand, The Punisher would have thought that huge swarm of spiders really was Spider-Man. He gave the latter a casual glance and spoke indifferently.
"You should go down and see for yourself. Another freak showed up pretending to be you, and this time, it's a whole bunch of spiders pretending to be you."
Unable to understand what The Punisher was talking about at all, Spider-Man once again used the movable eye lenses on his new mask to display a vivid expression of "what the hell are you talking about?"
On top of the rubble, Chameleon, still disguised as Spider-Man, struggled to get up. The shot had fortunately missed its mark, and the suit he wore had some protective capabilities. He had actually survived. He couldn't help coughing up blood as he staggered away.
Damn it, he had to find the safe house before Frank Castle found him...
He heard a faint rustling sound. Chameleon turned and saw a huge swarm of spiders crawling out from the building's ruins, slowly assembling into a human shape.
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