"Eren, are you still... you?" Lily asked, having seen the entire thing happen right in front of her screen.
"I'm still me." Eren spoke with malice in his voice as he still posed his three-pointed stance on the ground. He could still feel the symbiote ramping up his belligerence and power, but he was one hundred percent in control. In fact, he couldn't feel the symbiote trying to fight back in the slightest. It was as if the part of the Prime Symbiote on his body was dormant.
Spider-Man was furious. He heard Flash's final words, they were attached to the suit he was given. Flash's memories, all of them, echoed through Eren's mind.
Despite the two somewhat becoming friends, Eren never truly forgave Flash for everything he'd done to him all those years prior. However, that all changed at this very moment.
"Flash. I don't know if you can hear me under there, but if you are, I forgive you and I'm going to get you out of there." Spider-Man's voice was still filled with aggression, yet there were still some traces of sympathy within it.
He then stood up straight, and slowly, began entering his Ultimate Godspeed form, allowing that blue aura to spiral up his limbs before the aura covered his entire body. Venom's eyes widened to see that this aura had a very subtle difference to it. Every once in a while, black lightning would cackle within the aura, but Spider-Man failed to take notice himself.
That feeling inside of Spider-Man, that feeling of being invincible, was just as strong as ever. Once again, he felt like he was an unstoppable force, he felt like the most powerful being on the planet.
He felt undefeatable.
As the audience of symbiote slaves watched from the sidelines, Spider-Man clenched his fist, expelling out even more Godspeed energy with such force, the leaves of nearby trees began to rustle due to his pressure.
πππ!
Spider-Man, covered in his white symbiote, zipped forward using Godspeed energy as that famous blue aura surrounded his body in his Ultimate state. Venom, as if they shared the same brain, dashed forward as well, leaving behind a blue streak and sporting a blue aura of his own.
The two warriors clashed, generating a massive spark of electricity that could be seen by both the New Goblin and Silk who were still traveling toward them, despite being a few miles off. "Lily, what's happening?" Harry asked, figuring Eren was far too busy to explain it himself.
"Spider-Man is using the symbiote again... but it's white?" Lily didn't even understand what she was seeing. Not only was the concept itself confusing, but she couldn't even see what Spider-Man or Venom was doing as things were moving far too fast on her screen due to their speed.
"A white symbiote?" Silk muttered, picking up the speed of her swings so she could see this for herself. She didn't want Eren to lose himself again, though this would be far from the case as he was fully himself at that moment.
"I can't see a thing, it's all just a blur. Spider-Man is using Godspeed again, that's all I know."
And that he was.
Spider-Man and Venom were moving so fast, to the untrained eye, they were nothing more than two blurry, blue flashes of light. However, for them, it was as if they were moving normally.
In terms of strength and speed, they were perfectly matched, however, there was one key difference between the two of them. Venom was nothing more than an alien puppeteering another man's body, practically marionetting a corpse around. It didn't have the one thing that Eren Parker had over it, the one thing that made him better than it in every single way: Years of fighting experience.
Venom did have Eren Parker's memories, it could remember Eren's many fights and even his training with the Black Panther. However, only Eren's body was there to truly experience them.
πΎππΌπΎπ!
Spider-Man sent a powerful punch to the side of Venom's body, one aimed directly at the liver as if it mattered. The punch was so powerful, it created a ripple through Venom's body, showing Flash Thompson beneath it. Eren wasn't holding back. He knew Flash Thompson was underneath it all and he knew Flash's final wish. He wasn't going to hold back.
As Spider-Man's fist dug deeply into the side of Venom's body, Venom let out an earth-shattering bellow, one that seemingly awoken the entranced symbiotes that were just standing there watching them.
He wanted to kill Spider-Man himself, which is why he ordered them to stay in place, but he knew that was no longer possible.
In an instant, Bolters began attacking Spider-Man using his own Godspeed energy against him, though he was still far faster than them. As Spider-Man fended off the Bolters with punches and kicks, Venom cackled before forming an axe with his arm and swinging it directly toward Spider-Man's neck.
Spider-Man dodged backward, forming a white scythe with his hand before slicing the axe off of Venom's arm. "It's going to take more than a couple of your minions for you to even lay a scratch on me!" Spider-Man roared, landing a sweep kick under Venom's feet during the same move, forming a trail of blue Godspeed energy behind his leg. Swiftly, Spider-Man found himself back on his feet as Venom lay on the ground, lifting his sludgy scythe in the air as Deranged and Bolters began leaping toward him.
Quickly, Spider-Man extended his arm into a single long, white tendril with a hammer at the end of it before knocking away a group of symbiotes in one swift motion. He had a visible grimace on his face, seen by his white mask stretching at the brows and at the mouth. He wasn't sure what to do.
He wondered if these people went through the same things as Flash did. Were they too trapped inside the symbiote, still having their human consciousness and being forced to watch themselves commit these heinous acts? He wondered why he didn't feel that way when the symbiote bonded with his body, he figured it must've been because of his powers.
Regardless, he didn't know what would be the right call.
Would killing them here and now be the best move?
What if a cure could be found, should he then spare them?
If they would be cured, would these people even be able to continue living?
These thoughts all poured into his mind for only a millisecond before Eren returned his attention back to Venom. There wasn't time to think about any sort of moral dilemma, what mattered was defeating Venom, even if it killed the man underneath and those around him.
Transforming that tendril back into a sharp weapon, Spider-Man slammed it down toward Venom, who was able to dodge it at the last minute. This attack was so powerful, it left a massive cut into the pavement beneath them, showing just how powerful Spider-Man had grown to become when he wasn't holding back alongside the power of this new symbiote.
Spider-Man clicked his tongue in frustration, seeing that his attack missed. Before he could send another attack, more symbiotes started to attack him, including a few Mimics who looked just like him aside from their disfigured faces. "So you're the bastards parading around as me!" Spider-Man started sending full-powered punches and kicks to the Mimics, letting out his frustration with each electric hit.
As he fended them off, he noticed Venom grabbing a truck and lifting it over his head before throwing it at him as if it were as light as a paper ball.
Spider-Man, using Godspeed, zipped away, leaving a few symbiotes behind who were then crushed by the truck. Vehicles were then continuously thrown as Spider-Man dashed around in a zig-zagging formation before he inevitably caught up to Venom, leaping onto his body and tackling him to the ground.
Like an MMA fighter, Spider-Man started punching Venom in the face with strikes so powerful, they were leaving craters in the pavement beneath them. Venom tried to defend himself, but Eren's strength and speed were far too great, in fact, he could feel Eren getting faster and stronger as his anger continued to build up.
That black electricity that seemingly only appeared every few seconds was starting to appear more often, covering Spider-Man's fists as his fury grew. Again, Spider-Man was too furious to even notice the change.
"Who has the detonator?" Spider-Man shouted into his comms as he continued to punch Venom in the face. However, it wasn't long before a Mimic shot a web at his arm, holding it in the air. Like a wild beast, Spider-Man turned around to look at the Mimic that was trying with all of its strength to pull Spider-Man off of its father, but Spider-Man simply stared at it with his angry, lifeless, black eyes filled with black lightning.
With a quick motion, Spider-Man yanked the Mimic forward and punched it in the face, sending it flying backward and crashing into a car, obliterating it.
"I have it!" Harry told him. "I'm about a minute away, but I'm in range! Just say the word and I'll detonate it." Harry was flying with his board at full thrust, leaning forward to cut through the air as fast as possible.
During this moment of distraction, Venom punched Spider-Man in the chest, sending him flying backward. Spider-Man's limbs flailed in the air until he caught himself on a traffic light, spinning three times like a gymnast before flinging himself back toward Venom.
Venom, infusing a car with Godspeed energy, threw it at Spider-Man like an electric bullet. Again, this was all happening so fast, all Lily could see through Spider-Man's eyes were flashes of light, and even the car was unseeable to her. She felt frustrated that she couldn't help from behind the screen as she often did, but she could tell that Eren was winning and that was all that mattered.
Spider-Man was quick to react to the speeding vehicle, grabbing it in mid-air and spinning with it in his hands as his muscles bulged out from his white suit. Like a massive hammer, Spider-Man slammed the car toward Venom as if it were weightless, however, Venom was able to flash-step out of the way.
Meanwhile, symbiotes began trying to dogpile Spider-Man, though he simply used the car to fend them off, spinning with it in his hands and defeating every symbiote that came near. He eventually spotted Venom in his vision and threw the car at him like a speeding missile.
Venom reacted by slicing the car in half with a tendril-formed axe using his right hand. However, between the two halves of the car, Spider-Man appeared and kicked Venom in the face, sending him spiraling backward.
To his right, Spider-Man could see the factory with the bombs inside of it. He knew that punching the symbiote would be useless, that wouldn't kill it. He needed to bring Venom into the oncoming explosion and hope that it will be enough.
Looking to his right, he noticed a police truck, one that looked to have suffered minimal damage, which gave him an idea. He zipped toward it, meanwhile, Venom was already back on his feet and began throwing a fire hydrant at Spider-Man.
Spider-Man hopped over it before crashing into the police truck and concealing the symbiote inside of his own body. Venom saw what Spider-Man was planning, as did the many symbiotes as they all began making a break for Spider-Man, who was now seen with his red and blue costume as the symbiote hid underneath it.
Using Godspeed in just his hands, Spider-Man hotwired the truck and turned on the sirens, immediately causing all of the symbiotes, including Venom, to stop in their tracks as the ear-blistering sound took advantage of their weakness.
Since the symbiote was hiding beneath Spider-Man's skin and Spider-Matter, the pain he felt was nothing more than a slight inconvenience.
"Harry! On my signal!" Spider-Man shouted into his comms before jumping out of the truck and grabbing it with both hands. He strained slightly, but it was nothing he couldn't handle as he walked with it in his hands, lining up the perfect throw.
"On your signal! I'm ready!" Harry confirmed, holding the detonator in his hand while waiting for the word.
Venom and his symbiotes stood in place, squirming in pain while holding their ears before Spider-Man spoke to Venom for hopefully one last time.
"GET OUT OF MY FUCKING TIMELINE!" Spider-Man bellowed as he threw the truck directly at Venom, causing both it and the villain to go soaring toward the factory. As soon as the truck crashed through the factory wall, Spider-Man shouted into his comms once more. "NOW, HARRY! NOW!"
π½πππ!
A massive explosion, one far larger than Spider-Man expected, blew up the entire factory alongside parts of some of the buildings beside it. Calling it nuclear would be an over-exaggeration, but it was unbelievable just how powerful just several of those bombs proved to be. "Jesus Christ, Harry... What the fuck?" Spider-Man couldn't believe such tiny bombs were capable of such a feat.
"Impressed, huh?" Harry was proud, seeing the explosion from where he was while also spotting Spider-Man in his red and blue costume. "Behind you."
Spider-Man turned around to see Harry jumping from his glider and landing right next to him. Just a few seconds later, Silk conveniently was seen swinging toward them, having a clearly worried expression visible on the upper half of her face.
As soon as she landed, she hugged Eren tightly. "Thank God." she whispered before looking over at what was left of the factory. "I assume Venom was in that?"
They all looked at the factory, which was now crumbling apart as the fire roared from the openings that were created from the many explosions that happened inside. They could hear the harrowing cries of symbiotes and humans coming from the inside, those human screams giving all three of them a sick feeling in their stomachs.
"Yeah, let's take a look." Spider-Man said before covering himself with his white symbiote and using Godspeed to take his friends to the site of the explosion. The charred factory was still on fire and falling apart, prompting Spider-Man to once again pull back the symbiote to protect it from the flames.
The smoke was far too much for them to handle, however, Spider-Man was quick to come up with an idea. He covered Cindy's and Harry's mouths with his hands, confusing both of them. "Hey, what the-" Harry's muffled voice was soon contained inside a breathing mask made of Spider-Man's Spider-Matter. Cindy's face was also covered with a mask formed by his hand.
Spider-Man's own mask was then transformed into his own breathing mask, revealing his face and tied up dreadlocks that were hidden beneath it. "Let's go." he told them both before all three of them stepped inside the firey mess in front of them.
Once they were inside, they could see charred human corpses everywhere and no traces of any sort of symbiote, as they were all burned to nothingness during the explosion. Cindy had this sympathetic look on her face, feeling sorry for the people who Eren had to sacrifice to make this happen, but she understood it was the only way.
However, she knew that she wouldn't have been able to make that choice herself. She looked up at Harry and Eren, the two who were actually responsible for their deaths. Both of them had this unphased look on their faces as if they didn't care about the people they killed.
However, she could sense the feeling of guilt and grief building inside of Eren, despite his blank expression. She figured it must have been the same for Harry, and she'd be right. Harry felt like his father, though he understood that it had to happen like this.
Occasionally, they'd spot a charred human crawling, trying to get out of the flames before finally passing on...
There were even children.
Sights like this would only further increase those feelings of guilt, but there were zero feelings of regret inside of them.
The pods all seemed to have burned away as well, there was absolutely nothing left of the hive. Eventually, they found the truck that Eren threw, along with a charred body that was pinned up against it. It was unrecognizable, but it was a male's body with a similar build to Flash.
"Is that-" Cindy felt even more nauseous upon possibly seeing a person she knew dead in front of them.
"We don't know that yet. We need to identify the corpse. Let's bring it back to Oscorp." Spider-Man, without any hesitation, picked the body up off the ground before looking around at the others nearby. The rest of them were either not Flash's body type, female, or children, so they couldn't be Flash Thompson.
"I'll let the scientists know so they can prepare." Lily said through their comms before doing as she said.
Both Harry and Cindy remained silent as Eren started walking toward the exit with the body in his hands. "I'll see you guys at Oscorp, I'll bring it to the lab. It might not be over yet, so don't treat it like we've won yet. I've seen it too many times."
With those words said, Spider-Man left the building and used his speed to zip back to Oscorp with the body in hand. As he ran, all he could do was pray that the body he was holding was in fact Flash Thompson's and that the symbiote was gone for good.