You Shouldn't Be Like This

Strands of web shot from the launchers at his wrists, sticking firmly to the towering skyscrapers packed across New York City as they carried Spider-Man swinging and leaping through the night.

The Symbiote had indeed boosted Spider-Man's combat power considerably. He had needed a long time to adapt before mastering the strength within him, several times greater than before. Even his steel-wire-tough webs had snapped repeatedly under that immense force.

Just as he was preparing to continue adapting this way, the Symbiote that had turned his suit black and white suddenly rippled. Sensing something, Spider-Man raised his wrist, and a strand of mucus as thick as a finger shot out like a web.

"Whoa!"

Peter gave it an experimental tug. Whether in feel, convenience, toughness, strength, or quantity, the Symbiote webbing was several times better than the specialized webbing he had developed himself. It could fully withstand his current strength.

At that point, he no longer hesitated. Grabbing the Symbiote webs with both hands, he leaped from the top of a building with a whoosh.

"Yes, that's it. I have great power. I can do whatever I want!"

"That's right. Whatever you want!"

"I want to go on a killing spree and eat everyone's brains!"

"No, no, no! That's too terrifying! I just want to get some money for Aunt May... Why am I having the urge to eat people's brains?"

"Don't think so much. My main mission right now is to snatch that cash from the drug dealers!"

"The bridge! We're here!"

"Captain! Are they really drug dealers? Why do they seem more like arms dealers to me?"

"You're not the only one!"

"Maintain the defensive formation! I suspect this may be connected to the major purge in Hell's Kitchen. Kingpin can't accept his nest turning into a paradise on earth. This shipment may contain the guns and ammunition he's supplying to his men!"

"Damn city vigilantes!"

The deputy captain beside George viciously slammed his fist against the shattered window of the police car. He said bitterly, "They may look like they're dispensing justice and punishing evil, but they don't understand that what they're doing is itself a contempt for the law—another form of wrongdoing!"

"So what if they possess superhuman strength? So what if they can leap across rooftops? Their appearance does more to hinder normal police operations, creating entirely unnecessary trouble and obstacles for us!"

"Damn city vigilantes!"

George leaned against the rear of the car and listened in silence, saying nothing. He admitted that the deputy captain made sense, because that was how he had initially felt as well. But regardless, city vigilantes were people with justice in their hearts. It was precisely because he had recognized that fact that he had recruited Spider-Man, Peter Parker, as his "informant."

In his view, vigilantes with extraordinary abilities were like the gun currently held by the enemy across from them. A gun itself bore no malice toward the police; its capabilities were simply being used in the wrong place. What George wanted was to hold these highly destructive "firearms"—the vigilantes—in his own hands. Even if he could not control them one hundred percent, he could at least make them follow the rules set by the police.

Like the Spider-Man swinging in on webs from the distance.

See? So obedient.

After seeing Spider-Man land in a textbook superhero pose, George let out a long breath. The reason he had ordered everyone to maintain a defensive formation was not because the police could not handle the criminals on the other side. He wanted to use this opportunity to raise the standing of vigilantes in the eyes of the police, so that most officers would no longer view them as enemies, but as powerful support capable of reducing their comrades' casualties.

That way, he could carry out one of the plans he had in mind more smoothly...

"Whoa! There are so many of them! I want to eat them all!"

"No, no, no! I came here to steal money... uh, to rob the rich and help the poor. Why am I having such terrifying thoughts about eating people?"

"Take the money! Take the money! Kill them first, then take the money!"

"...I won't kill anyone."

At that moment, the officers hiding behind the police cars and the drug dealers laying down suppressive fire both noticed the uninvited guest who had suddenly appeared atop the overpass. Quite a few officers recognized Spider-Man, though they were equally puzzled as to why his suit had turned black. The drug dealers, already close to madness, had no intention of thinking about that. Spider-Man or Lizardman, whoever got in their way would get a burst of bullets first.

"Rat-a-tat-tat...!"

"Clang, clang, clang...!"

Before the drug dealers even opened fire, Spider-Man had keenly sensed the danger. He nimbly leaped and dodged across the overpass, shifting left and right as every bullet fired at him was left far behind. At the same time, under the Symbiote's subtle and constant influence, a surging, nameless fury spread rapidly through his heart like wildfire.

"Return fire at will!"

Seeing that most of the drug dealers' firepower had been drawn to Spider-Man, George decisively picked up the radio at his waist and gave the order to attack. The vigilante's role was merely to reduce unnecessary casualties among the officers. As expected of the first person he had chosen, Peter's mission had been completed perfectly. The rest could be left to the valiant NYPD!

On a battlefield that changed by the second, anything could happen.

A bullet fired by someone unknown mistakenly struck one of the bridge supports. After an incredibly bizarre ricochet, it failed to hit anyone among either the police or the drug dealers. Instead, it struck Spider-Man squarely in the face, while he was struggling to suppress his nameless rage and failed to sense the danger in time!

The bullet slowly bored into the rapidly surging black slime. In the blink of an eye, the golden bullet head was pushed back out completely intact.

Spider-Man slowly turned his head and clearly saw countless bullets whistling toward him. But at that moment, his heart was already filled with rage, his last sliver of rationality crushed deep within. For the first time, the Symbiote consciousness overwhelmed Peter Parker and gained control of this extraordinary body.

"What a wonderful feeling, Peter."

"Watch how I make use of this body's power!"

"Paf paf paf...!"

Scorching bullets spun into the black Spider Suit, only to be squeezed back out within less than a breath. A huge, savage grin split across the Symbiote Spider-Man's face as five thick webs shot simultaneously from the fingertips of his right hand, wrapping tightly around a steel pillar supporting the bridge.

"I'll smash you to death!"

Accompanied by an ear-splitting screech of tearing metal, the alloy pillar, thick enough that two men could barely wrap their arms around it, was forcibly ripped apart. The five strands of Symbiote webbing twisted and fused together, their surging power dragging the massive object down toward the armed drug dealers, whose faces were filled with horror as they stood frozen in place!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Every officer forgot to fire. They could only stare in utter disbelief as the hardened steel bridge pillar smashed into the bridge deck again and again, sending flesh and blood flying and severed limbs scattering everywhere... Several young officers who had only recently started carrying guns could not help bending over to vomit.

"Money! Money! Money!"

The Symbiote Spider-Man paid no attention to anyone around him. He waved jet-black mucus tentacles through the vehicles that had long since been reduced to fragments, searching for what this body desperately wanted. The bridge pillar continued crashing down onto the bridge deck again and again as the Symbiote did everything it could to display its power to Peter Parker, who roared helplessly in fury from deep within his mind.

Cracks rapidly spread in every direction, and huge sections of the level bridge deck began collapsing downward.

Seeing this, George immediately called for the officers to withdraw. Even after the deputy captain dragged him into the car, he continued staring with a complicated expression at the "Spider-Man" holding a cash case in wild excitement.

"Peter, you shouldn't be like this."