Peter definitely couldn't just sit there and let himself be taken over.
The moment he sensed Venom's intention, he threw all his focus into guarding his brain, holding tightly onto the most critical part of himself.
This was also why, from Iron Man's perspective, Peter's body looked like it was continuously going berserk.
But in reality, his condition was actually getting better!Aside from the fact that his body was completely out of his control, his consciousness was becoming clearer and clearer.
Even that earlier splitting headache was gradually fading away.
He even had the leisure to carefully "look" at himself.
He saw his own body, saw Tony Stark standing beside him in the Iron Man suit — anxious but seemingly "helpless" — and even saw his physical body instinctively wrestling with Venom for control.
He felt like he'd entered a strange state.
Oh!
Right!
This state was very similar to Astral Projection!But it wasn't to the point where his soul completely separated from the body — it was something in between "soul inside the body" and "soul leaving the body."
A very peculiar feeling.
He had followed Strange to study magic for so many days, but unless Strange helped him, he'd never succeeded in releasing anything on his own.
Could it be… he now had a chance to pull it off?
…No, wait, this was NOT the time to think about that.
Peter refocused, turning his attention back to the Venom symbiote that was eroding his body.
At this moment, his entire body was basically covered in the black Venom suit.
A sign that his physical form was gradually losing control.
Except for his head.
All the symbiote that originally tried to invade his head had been forcibly pushed out by Peter.
So now, Peter looked like this:Everything below the neck was fully wrapped in Venom's black suit, while everything above the neck was still Peter.
"Peter?" Iron Man called out cautiously.
Peter nodded. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, his body lunged at Iron Man on its own.
"Tony, watch out!" Peter shouted urgently.
But his body obediently threw a punch straight at the Iron Man suit.
The distance was too close — Tony didn't even have time to react before he was smashed away, slamming into the wall again.
"Saying 'watch out' while your fist shows zero mercy," Iron Man complained, firing a repulsor blast to knock Peter back.
Earlier, he had already checked Peter's current stats with Friday — Peter's physical resilience was extremely high, no weaker than Iron Man's own.
It was unbelievable, but it was the truth.
Which meant Tony could now fight freely without worrying about accidentally beating Peter to death.
If anything, Tony was more worried that Peter would tear his armor apart.
"Friday, I need backup."
"Right away, sir."
Tuttuttut—
Several compartment doors around the room opened, and multiple unpainted mass-production Iron Man units rushed in, unloading everything they had at Peter.
Repulsor blasts, micro-missiles, spring-loaded punches—He threw every nonlethal attack type he had at Peter.
He held back on the laser weapons—those were cutting tools.He didn't want the Peter he just saved to turn into a spider missing a couple limbs.
But soon Tony realized that his earlier worry was unnecessary.
His previous worry was the real one.
Venom-Peter, surrounded by the armors, suddenly exploded with force—He smashed his body forward, scattering all the suits around him.
Then he lunged, grabbed one of the mass-production suits, and slammed it into the ground.
BANG!
The armor raised both hands and fired a rapid burst of repulsor blasts at Peter's chest.
But when the energy dispersed, Venom-Peter stood there unharmed.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
He swung the armor like a giant hammer, smashing the other units into scrap metal within moments.
"F***, are you the Black Hulk now?" Iron Man yelled.
"I'm Black Spider-Man," Peter corrected.
"You brat, shut it," Tony snapped back. "You noticed a problem and didn't say anything earlier? Were you trying to die? Is this fun for you?"
"Uh… I thought I could handle it…" Peter said awkwardly.
He originally planned to ask Strange for help, but after circling around, he still ended up troubling Stark.
"No worries. Just pay for the damages. You remember how much each of these armors costs, right?" Iron Man said casually.
Peter looked at the shattered armor pieces all over the floor.A bead of poor-kid sweat slid down his forehead.
"I… I don't have money."
"No money? No problem. You're officially an employee of Stark Industries now. Pay it off slowly—I'm not in a rush."
The scene in the lab right now was downright bizarre.
Venom-Peter was still vigorously dismantling the armors—One, two, three—clean, fast, brutal, almost artistic in its violence.
And the one whose armor was being torn apart, Iron Man, showed zero concern.He just chatted casually with Peter.
Venom-Peter kept trying to break through the armor encirclement to get to Iron Man, but thanks to the suits' interference, he always ended up stuck.
Meaning Peter was the only one wearing a metaphorical pain mask.
He lowered his gaze to the ruined armor parts and the demolished lab equipment around him.All of this had to be compensated for!
Money.All he saw was money burning!
"Sir, the sonic gauntlets are ready," Friday announced.
Tony calmly extended his left hand.The existing gauntlet detached and fell to the floor.
Whoosh—
A new gauntlet flew in and attached perfectly.
"Well then, Peter—let's begin!"
At the same time, several identical gauntlets equipped the other mass-production suits.
Tony charged ahead, unleashing the first sonic blast.
Venom-Peter instantly froze in place.
At that moment, all the armors equipped with sonic gauntlets activated at once, surrounding Peter and firing in unison.
VMMMM—
VMMMM—
VMMMM—
Multiple sonic waves resonated together, completely engulfing Venom-Peter.
THUD!
Venom-Peter fell to his knees, the black symbiote twisting violently.
It struggled desperately, trying to escape the sonic field.
"Peter—now!" Iron Man shouted.
"Got it!"
Peter responded and pushed downward with all his might.
Under the sonic suppression, the symbiote's resistance was pitifully weak.Peter peeled it off almost effortlessly, removing the once overwhelming Venom from his body.
(End of Chapter)