George Stacy drove to the funeral home. Although bizarre crimes had emerged in endless succession in New York since the birth of Iron Man, violent felonies hadn't actually seen a significant rise. Gangs had upgraded their firepower and costumed clowns were running amok everywhere, but their motives remained unchanged: steal money when there's money to be stolen, and take goods when there's something to take.
So, upon hearing the report of this particular atrocity, he immediately rushed to the scene. According to the report from the officers who arrived first, every employee at the funeral home that night, including the person who discovered the scene, had been murdered.
There was little choice in the matter. Not only was Inspector Stacy more accustomed to personally responding to calls, but he also had to consider practical realities. During the period when Doctor Octopus occupied New York, roughly 60% of the entire NYPD had chosen to defect. Even discounting those who were coerced or had political connections, a staggering 23% of officers had still been dismissed, leading to a severe shortage of police personnel in New York.
To make matters worse, the government had just downsized the NYPD by another 15%, following the standard policy of the Democratic Party.
"Fortunately, SHIELD sent someone over. Where is our backup?"
Inspector Stacy, clutching a cup of coffee, asked his partner as he stepped out of the car. The veteran Black officer simply nodded toward the side. Stacy looked over and saw a young female hero dressed in a dark gray skin-tight suit standing by a trash can, dry-heaving. It seemed she had just lost her breakfast.
"Young people these days," the Inspector sighed, shaking his head as he walked toward the funeral home. "Making a fuss over a crime scene—urk!"
Upon seeing the crime scene, Inspector Stacy nearly lost his composure. He immediately bolted to the trash can to join the vomiting, while the SHIELD agent, who was mostly finished, introduced herself somewhat feebly.
"Hello, Inspector. I am SHIELD Agent Spider-Woman. I've been ordered to assist the NYPD in investigating this homicide. We have already suppressed the news; there won't be any media reports on this case for the time being."
Inspector Stacy, having actually vomited up his breakfast, pulled out a napkin to wipe his mouth. Hearing the girl's introduction, he paused again. "Spider-Woman? What's your relationship with Spider-Man?"
"Uh, the names are just similar?"
He didn't believe for a second that someone would choose a name so closely linked to a popular Avenger by coincidence. However, he had no time to worry about Peter's affairs right now. After calming his nerves, he pushed open the doors of the funeral home.
Inside was the "masterpiece" of a murderer: several corpses were arranged sitting on the floor around the incinerator. These bodies all shared identical characteristics—their heads were missing, their upper-body clothing had been stuffed into the incinerator, and every single one had been eviscerated. Their internal organs had been used to spell out a single word: "REBIRTH."
"Whoever this guy is, he's a psychopath. Likely a mental patient."
Inspector Stacy frowned. How many years had it been since such an explosive case had occurred in New York? If the media got wind of this, wouldn't they swarm the place?
He watched as the girl walked to the edge of the incinerator, peered inside curiously, and then turned back to say something that shattered Stacy's perception of reality.
"The killer crawled out from inside the incinerator."
Inspector Stacy was left stunned for a full half-minute by that sentence.
"You're saying... some guy who was stuffed into the incinerator realized he was about to be burned to death, so he chose to crawl out and kill everyone?" Stacy initially thought it was preposterous, but then he thought about the godforsaken era they lived in and decided it wasn't that far-fetched. Still, looking at the word "REBIRTH" on the floor—which looked like it would explode if one stared at it too long—he couldn't help but shake his head.
However, this did explain why SHIELD had sent a superpowered individual.
Spider-Woman quickly located the funeral home's records. The most recent cremation log came from Rikers Island Prison; a death row inmate who had been executed by lethal injection had been sent here for cremation. This inmate was highly likely to be the killer, but the list was useless because the name of the deceased had not been marked.
"Theoretically, as long as we can investigate which prisoner was executed yesterday, we can find the killer."
Inspector Stacy leaned in to look at the list, but Spider-Woman was faster and delivered the bad news.
"SHIELD just got the info. No death row inmates were executed yesterday. To be precise, none have been in the last few weeks."
None?
Stacy was taken aback, his brow furrowing. If there were none, then that meant this wasn't an accidental incident where a murderer suddenly gained superpowers?
Was it premeditated? But for what?
Enduring her physiological discomfort, Spider-Woman returned to the corpses and carefully examined the wounds. The abdominal incisions on the victims were smooth, looking as though they had been sliced by a sharp blade, but the neck wounds were... strange?
"It's as if something tore their heads right off..."
Was there something that grew by eating human brains? She recalled something similar mentioned in SHIELD's database. Symbiotes? But weren't symbiotes afraid of high temperatures? How could one crawl out of an incinerator?
Cletus, having left the funeral home, was in no hurry to complete Knull's mission. Knull wanted him to kill Venom and Spider-Man, but currently, Cletus didn't want to kill either of them.
It wasn't that he had seen through Knull's resurrection plan; it was simply that he felt neither he nor a starving Carnage could defeat them. Moreover, there was a more crucial reason.
He was in love.
He felt the compatibility between Carnage and himself. Forty-eight hours after being injected with the symbiote, Carnage had already twisted itself based on Cletus's life. The synchronization between the two was absolutely perfect; this unprecedented sensation gave him a sense of physical pleasure and excitement.
But there was a problem: Carnage couldn't speak.
So, he decided to let Carnage grow sufficiently first, let it learn to speak, and he also needed to carefully investigate exactly what his two targets were capable of. After all, his "employer" seemed all-powerful yet had been trapped by these two.
Cletus walked down the street, deep in thought, and accidentally bumped into someone. The man in the suit looked at Cletus's ragged appearance and snarled, "Don't you have eyes?!"
Cletus flashed a smile, punched the man, and turned to run. To his surprise, the suited man was genuinely enraged. Seeing Cletus's thin frame, the man chased after him.
Minutes later, Cletus walked out of the alley wearing a clean suit, a satisfied smile on his face.