Air pressure swept through Gwen Stacy's bangs.
Peter's foot stopped less than an inch from the middle-aged man's face. The gust kicked up by his sole made the muscles around the man's eyes twitch violently.
"Nobody told me I'd have to take a hit like that before I came here." The man swallowed, his voice thick with a rural accent.
Peter's pupils contracted, and his core muscles abruptly pulled in the opposite direction. He forcibly checked a side kick powerful enough to punch through steel, stamping his right foot hard onto the tile beside him.
Crack!
A web of cracks exploded across the tile. Stone fragments struck the metal cabinet doors beneath the lab bench with a clatter.
Peter didn't pause. Using the recoil from landing, he slid backward half a meter, grabbed Gwen Stacy's wrist with his left hand, and hauled her firmly behind him.
He raised his right hand, aiming his wrist forward.
"What are you?" Peter asked in a low voice, his breathing rapid beneath his mask. "Gwen, did he touch you?"
"I'm fine, Peter." Gwen Stacy patted his shoulder, which had gone rigid as stone. "He didn't attack me."
The fissure in Lightning's chest slowly closed. Black matter flowed like melted asphalt, covering the man's face again as silver-blue patterns lit up once more.
"My name is Lightning." Its voice regained its steady, flat electronic quality, as though that frightened middle-aged man had never existed.
"From Klyntar. A cosmic agent of the Peace Hive."
Peter kept his wrist raised.
"An agent? Where are your alien body cameras? Is breaking into a university lab on Earth part of your law enforcement procedure, too?"
"We came tracking a fugitive." Lightning's gaze passed over Peter and settled on Gwen Stacy's shoulder.
"Venom, you must return with me for evaluation.