"Peter, this won't kill you—but it's definitely going to hurt."
The Human Torch flared brighter, his entire body igniting into a blazing orb of fire. He dove like a comet into the subterranean tunnels, the air trembling from the heat alone. In an instant, the entire subway corridor became an inferno. Metal rails warped and melted into streams of glowing slag; concrete walls blistered and cracked under the onslaught.
Black Spider-Man responded instinctively, firing a web barrage behind him. Black strands shot outward, stretching across the tunnel like thick, sticky barricades, trying desperately to slow the fiery pursuer.
It was useless.
The Human Torch expanded his flames outward with a burst of power. The entire tunnel lit up like the inside of a furnace, and the sticky black webs ignited, disintegrating into ash in a heartbeat. Even the air shimmered from the intense heat.
Still, the effort wasn't entirely wasted—it delayed the chase for a few precious seconds. Seizing that moment, the Black Spider-Man fired a line of webbing toward the distant exit. The instant the web latched onto the wall, it contracted like a living muscle, launching him forward with incredible speed.
Johnny Storm roared and shot after him. The two burst from the tunnel exit almost simultaneously, tumbling together through the air as they crashed into the deeper sections of New York's sewer system.
Marcus, following at a distance, didn't immediately pursue. Instead, he knelt beside the scorched tunnel wall and peeled away a few strands of web that had survived the flames. The moment he touched them, the threads liquefied into a sticky black fluid.
"Interesting…" he murmured, studying them closely. The substance was unlike anything from Earth. After being exposed to heat, the material's adhesive strength had weakened dramatically, allowing him to pull it free with ease. But under his analysis, Marcus noticed something even more fascinating: the "webs" weren't simple fibers—they were alive.
Each strand was composed of countless microscopic cells—cells capable of independent division and mutation. Their replication rate far surpassed any known terrestrial organism.
"What a remarkable species…" Marcus whispered, his tone equal parts admiration and calculation. "Self-aware, endlessly adaptable, capable of parasitic evolution, and biologically immortal. In the right hands, this symbiote could surpass even the zombie virus as a tool for total annihilation."
Fascination gleamed in his eyes as he followed after them into the darkness.
The tunnel opened into a vast underground reservoir—a wide, dome-shaped chamber filled with stagnant water. The air was thick and humid, nearly suffocating. Only a third of the tank still held water, suggesting it had long been abandoned.
Marcus's gaze swept the chamber. "A dead end… or a trap."
He wasn't wrong. The moment he entered, a heavy layer of black webbing slithered over the reservoir's only exit, sealing it shut.
The Black Spider-Man stood half-submerged in the water below, motionless, watching his fiery adversary hover above.
"Peter!" Johnny shouted, his voice echoing through the cavern. "Hide and seek's over! Come quietly, and I promise I'll go easy on you!"
He sounded confident—too confident.
The Black Spider-Man made no reply. Then, without warning, he raised both hands and unleashed a storm of webbing. Thousands of thick, glistening strands erupted from his wrists, blanketing the air in a black deluge.
Johnny sighed. "Again with the webs? You really don't learn."
He unleashed a blast of fire to vaporize the oncoming mass—only to realize something was different this time.
The webs were thicker, swollen like water hoses—and when his fire struck them, they didn't burn. They burst.
A torrent of water erupted from the webbing, flooding the air with a crashing wave that swallowed the flames whole. The entire chamber hissed violently as the flood clashed with fire. The massive web strands shrank back to normal size, their surfaces slick and dense, now impervious to the Torch's heat.
"What the—?!"
Before Johnny could react, the wet, water-saturated webs whipped around him like living ropes, wrapping around his limbs and torso. The more he struggled, the tighter they pulled, dragging him downward toward the dark water below.
In that moment, he understood what had happened. Half of the reservoir's water was gone—siphoned out through the webs themselves. The symbiote had absorbed it like a sponge, then expelled it in a single, devastating flood.
It was using the entire water reserve as a weapon.
"Impressive trick, Peter," Johnny gritted out as his flames sputtered under the onslaught. Bound and dragged downward, his fiery aura flickered, steam rising from his body. Yet even as the cold water hissed and sizzled against his skin, he didn't panic. In fact, he smiled.
"Clever. But you forgot one thing…" His eyes glowed fiercely. "This isn't enough to put out the fire!"
The Human Torch exploded.
A surge of heat far greater than before burst from his body, blasting the water into vapor. The flames reignited, roaring with renewed fury as the bonds around him burned away.
But he didn't stop there. The light from his body intensified, growing brighter and brighter until it illuminated the entire underground reservoir in a blinding orange-white glare.
Within moments, Johnny Storm no longer looked human. He was a miniature sun—a living star blazing in the depths of the earth.
The Black Spider-Man recoiled, the symbiote writhing uncontrollably on his skin, its surface rippling like boiling tar.
The heat was unbearable.
This was no ordinary flame. This was the Nova Burst—the Human Torch's ultimate technique.
A self-immolating explosion of power, unleashing temperatures exceeding one million degrees Fahrenheit (over 55,000°C). In that moment, he became a miniature star—an apocalyptic inferno that not even oceans could extinguish.
Every drop of water in the reservoir vaporized in an instant. Steam engulfed the chamber like a white storm. Metal supports sagged, stone walls glowed red, and the symbiote screamed in agony, its black surface bubbling under the impossible heat.
Marcus watched from afar, his expression unreadable.
"So this… is the true power of a superhuman," he murmured, the reflection of the miniature sun burning in his silver eyes.
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