Alright, so talking was officially over. Things had already blown up.
Middle-aged Peter was instantly caught by one of Doctor Olivia's mechanical tentacles, and the crazed woman's face lit up with a disturbingly delighted smile.
"You slipped out of my hands yesterday, but I won't let you get away this time. I think we're going to have a wonderful time together. I'll peel back every little secret you're hiding, one layer at a time~"
The material of Olivia's mechanical soft-metal tentacles was anything but ordinary.
At their shortest, they could retract completely into the armored housing on her back, making her look almost like a normal person from the outside.
But when fully extended, they could stretch more than twenty meters.
This was an active nano-metal she had synthesized by studying deep-sea octopi. The material could rapidly reshape itself in a short time, allowing the equipment to change form almost instantly.
At the same time, it was still genuine metal, with all the toughness, resilience, and solidity that implied. Forget blades, even bullets would have a hard time getting through it.
Olivia's ambush had come in fast and hard.
But for Spider-Man, it was still manageable.
Middle-aged Peter forced his way free and dodged the strike, not even sparing a glance for the wall beside him that got crushed by the tentacle. Then he fired back with his usual mouth.
"Your figure's not even that great. I'm not interested in you at all. And trust me, seeing you doesn't make me happy in the slightest!"
"Not bad. A woman's obsessed with you to that degree, so clearly you've got some charm. She's completely unhinged, sure, but still, you must be doing something right."
Peter kicked Tombstone away and stepped up beside middle-aged Peter, grinning.
"At this point, I'd rather not have that kind of charm."
He shook the slimy residue off his suit with obvious disgust, then muttered, "But seriously, these tentacles aren't like the ones I know Doctor Octopus for. They're kind of damp and sticky. Pretty gross."
"Who knows what kind of material she used."
After peeling the goo off himself, middle-aged Peter actually sniffed it out of curiosity, then recoiled and flicked it away in disgust.
"It smells like rotting fish sealed in a barrel. I swear I'm not exaggerating."
That line almost made Olivia want to murder him on the spot.
She was a mad scientist, yes, but she was still a woman.
Being called gross and disgusting and then openly recoiled from was more than enough to set her off.
Shnk!
Another tentacle shot toward him.
This time, middle-aged Peter didn't dare get careless. In his own world, Doctor Octopus had always been one of his most troublesome enemies.
And he clearly wasn't underestimating this version either.
He sprang backward several meters in a single leap, narrowly avoiding a two-pronged pincer strike from the tentacles.
Then the two of them launched straight into a full fight.
On the other side, Peter had been planning to hang back and watch for a bit longer, but suddenly his spider-sense flared hard. A barbed stinger came shooting right at him, and Peter instantly vaulted onto the roof to dodge it, locking eyes on the bald brute below.
"Hey, you really think turning yourself into a scorpion means you can beat Spider-Man?"
"That's a pretty wild fantasy."
"Though let me ask you this. That stinger's poisoned, right? What happens if you get hit by it yourself?"
Peter's rapid-fire sarcasm immediately sent Scorpion into a rage.
He hated Spider-Man.
The old one did this, and now this one was exactly the same.
Every Spider-Man was a damned chatterbox. They never stopped mocking people while fighting, and it drove him insane.
"I'm going to rip you apart, you obnoxious little pest!"
"With those giant claws? Might take some effort."
Peter barely finished the sentence before Scorpion lunged at him. Peter fired off two paralysis webs without hesitation.
But the moment the webs struck Scorpion's skin, the paralytic agent inside them seemed to do absolutely nothing, which made Peter blink.
"You rebuilt your whole body too? No nervous system left to numb???"
"To kill you annoying little freaks with my own hands, I turned myself into a living machine a long time ago! What nerves? I don't have any left! And it's all because of Spider-Man!!!"
Scorpion roared furiously, practically foaming with resentment.
"Hey, calm down. If your nerves are gone, then how's your brain functioning? Or do you have some kind of implant replacing the signal network?"
Peter slipped past the incoming claws with ease. To be fair, Scorpion was strong, very strong, but his huge body and heavy mechanical gear made him slow enough that Peter almost felt like he was toying with him.
"Why the hell would I tell you?!"
"Then don't. But you might want to turn around."
"What?!"
Scorpion spun around instinctively, and at that exact moment, a web splattered across his eyes, blinding him and throwing off his balance.
Then a black-white-pink figure came flying in with a brutal kick, knocking Scorpion's bulky frame flat on the floor.
That figure was Spider-Gwen.
She landed beside Peter and ran a hand across the unfamiliar suit he was wearing.
"Why is it that every few days you've got a new set of gear, but it never occurs to you to make one or two things for me?"
Spider-Gwen was strongly condemning Peter for hoarding all the good stuff for himself.
Oh sure, childhood sweethearts, mutual crushes, all that, and when it came to good gear, he just kept it all for himself.
He had one upgrade after another, while she had scraped together a few gadgets of her own only for her stubborn father to confiscate them all for being "a distraction," despite not knowing the first thing about them.
Did he have any idea how much harder crimefighting became for your friendly neighborhood Spider-Woman without proper equipment?
"My gear doesn't really suit you, but I've got plenty of electric web cartridges and electronic pulse devices. And since you love flying kicks so much, maybe I should make you a pair of reinforced combat shoes."
Peter made the suggestion in all seriousness.
It was true. His own gear worked smoothly because it was tailored to his fighting style. Putting it in someone else's hands would be a completely different story.
Customizing things to the individual made far more sense.
Scorpion tore the webbing off his face and regained his vision, only to get blindsided by a massive figure that slammed into him before he could attack again.
It was Peni in the spider-mech.
The mech's left arm had reshaped into a sharp circular blade that spun at high speed.
The disc carved across Scorpion's body in a shower of sparks.
Scorpion growled in pain and snapped his steel tail into the mech, sending it flying.
"I'm going to help middle-aged Peter. You and Peni can handle him, right?"
Peter noticed middle-aged Peter starting to fall behind and turned to ask.
"Leave it to me!"
With that answer, Peter immediately activated the invisibility built into the Black Suit.
In fact, that invisibility was probably even stronger than Miles's natural one.
Because it was an ability born out of hell itself, even infrared or thermal imaging couldn't detect him.
Meanwhile, middle-aged Peter had all four limbs pinned by those wet, slimy tentacles and couldn't break free no matter how hard he tried.
The tentacles seemed to carry a mild numbing effect. It wasn't overwhelmingly strong, but it was enough to affect him.
Bang!
A violent explosion rang out.
Before the yandere-like Olivia could say another word, she was sent flying like a kite and smashed hard into the wall.
Freed from the restraints, middle-aged Peter stared wide-eyed at Miles, who was off to the side dodging the shockwaves while looking just as confused.
Obviously, that hadn't been his doing.
What, had Olivia suddenly grown a conscience and punched herself?
"What are you spacing out for?"
Peter dropped out of invisibility right in front of him and spoke with total exasperation.
"Hey, how come you can go invisible too?! We're supposed to be the same person. Why can't I do that?!"
Middle-aged Peter felt deeply wronged. If they were really the same person, why were their powers totally different?
"That's the suit, not me."
"I'm reporting you for cheating."
"What, you think someone's gonna ban my account?"
Peter rolled his eyes at him, then rushed over to Peter Porker.
The two of them fired webs at the same time, followed with a kick, and sent Tombstone crashing out of the house in one blow.
On the other side, Spider-Noir was fighting the Prowler while Miles stood nearby, dodging the leftover shockwaves and staring at his uncle with a conflicted look, still unable to decide whether he could really fight back.
(End of Chapter)
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