The damage Spider-Man's attacks had caused so far was minimal. The Sleeper healed fast. Before it could pounce on him, Spidey leaped away, landing on the edge of one of the five large basins filled with green and white chemicals. He quickly scanned the area, noting that the facility appeared abandoned, its machinery deactivated.
Detective Mode was already supplying him with information on the chemical basin.
THE CHEMICALS IN THESE BASINS ARE DESIGNED TO NEUTRALIZE AND DESTABILIZE MOLECULAR STRUCTURES, PARTICULARLY ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. COINCIDENTALLY, HIGHLY EFFECTIVE AGAINST SYMBIOTIC ORGANISMS.
'Looks like we have a plan.'
He heard a snarl. The Sleeper lunged again and Spidey leaped high in the air. He caught onto a length of chain as if it were his own webbing and jumped onto the next chain. One hand holding himself, the other fired a web line, catching the creature's arm and yanking it toward one of the basins.
The Sleeper was momentarily moved but grabbed the webbing and melted it. Not good. The Sleeper knew what was up.
Thwip!
He pulled himself over to the previous lift hook chain, narrowly dodging the Sleeper. The thing was like a truck! Going blow to blow with it would probably end up with the both of them breaking. Felix would heal, the Symbiote would heal. Felix would adapt physically, the Symbiote would adapt its acid. Surely, at some point, Felix might emerge victorious. But it was the type of victory that occurred after blood, sweat, broken bones, burned flesh, and excruciatingly painful regeneration. A victory he did not wish to experience.
'Think, think!'
He dropped down to the metal platform. The Sleeper narrowly missed again and crashed into the wall. Throwing out a tendril, the Symbiote propelled itself toward him. Spider-Man leaped back but the Sleeper wasn't done, crawling towards him like a rabid animal.
'What that—?'
Block! The Sleeper's huge massive fist sent him hurling over the basin and onto the other platform. He skidded across, feet and hands keeping him from falling over.
'That was way too fast!'
No, that was a matter of speed. The Symbiote could stick. The giant creature jumped over, its weight caused the platform to creak, and rapidly chased after him, acid fists melting through the metal platform. Felix back-flipped and then focused fully on dodging.
'Fist coming left, left, right! Duck! Back-flip!'
When both arms came down, his options were either to block it or to back-flip. He chose the second and the platform came crashing down.
Both Spider-Man and the Sleeper landed on the ground floor. Neither had gained an advantage. An impasse followed until the Sleeper roared and ran after him.
"DIEEEE!"
'It definitely has my powers.' He blocked the fist with his wrist, then used his lesser weight to dive between its legs and palm-strike it in the spine. 'Of course it does. Gwen Stacy was closely affiliated with the project!'
A powerless Gwen Stacy was a slightly above average fighter. With the Symbiote, she could fight at her previous level of power. She could lift tens of tons, react to bullets, and essentially never let the public know that her powers had been stolen in the first place. Someone like Crossbones who already fought at superhuman levels could go much, much further than that. This was the result.
Felix Faeth, a man imbued with both spider-powers and Extremis was a complete match for Crossbones—for the Sleeper. His wrist was healing from the brief contact. The acid, this new power, it was ludicrous.
The palm-strike caused it to stagger forward. Felix flipped to the side and avoided its swinging fist. 'What's up with this abnormal reaction speed? I can barely get a combo in—!'
Felix had a hand on the floor, drawing in air, and proceeded to thwip, thwip, and launch toward it. The Sleeper was ready, fists high in the air.
'Shit.'
His smaller frame granted him superior agility and flexibility, so right before he was in the perfect place to get hammered in the stomach, he twisted himself right. Manipulating aerodynamics, his feet landed on the Sleeper's bulging bicep and his wrists immediately went to spray webbing all over its face.
He jumped back, dashing between spots to incite confusion, and aimed to strike a flying kick at the back of its head. His Spider-Sense activated. He couldn't stop, however. Felix rammed straight into the acidic fist.
The next instant, he was grabbed by its waist, struggling to break through. He covered its face and yet…
'It can see!'
He thought it had some sort of Spider-Sense but…
'No, not Spider-Sense.' Felix reconsidered its movements, gritting his teeth. His arms were completely trapped. 'It's 360-degree peripheral vision, probably thanks to the Symbiote's amorphous anatomy!'
He wanted to scream. The pain. The searing hot pain of acid against his upper body was too much. He was healing. Healing, healing, healing, but the pain didn't go away. The pain never went away. The Sleeper opened its jaw, long tongue hanging out and jaws prepared to bite his head off.
Desperation clawed at him, pulling from a well of anger and survival instinct buried deep within. With a guttural roar, Felix summoned every ounce of energy he had left.
Black lightning crackled from his fingertips, arcing wildly across the room. The dark tendrils of energy lashed out, wrapping around the Sleeper's elongated jaws and forcing them to halt mere inches from his face. The air crackled with the sound of electricity, and for a moment, Felix felt a grim satisfaction as the symbiote creature was momentarily restrained.
But then he remembered that the Sleeper was resilient. The symbiote's oily white arms functioned as a lightning rod that began to absorb the initial onslaught of black lightning, shrugging off the attack with an almost mocking resilience. It started to advance again, its hunger undeterred.
Felix's resolve hardened. Summoning the core of his power, he pushed deeper, feeling the black lightning surge and twist within him. He let out another scream. The black lightning began to change, shifting in hue and intensity. It grew brighter, hotter, transforming from its obsidian shade to a blinding, radiant white.
The transformation was complete. The white lightning surged forth, crackling with newfound intensity and purity. It struck the Sleeper head-on, and this time, the symbiote reacted differently. The creature recoiled, its shriek a mixture of surprise and agony. The white lightning did not merely restrain; it pierced, it burned, it disrupted.
The Sleeper's form convulsed, the once-fluid movements now jerky and spasmodic. Felix felt the oppressive weight of its strong arms and the acid begin to lift as the white lightning coursed through him. With his own strength, he broke out and the Sleeper was forced back. His healing factor already purged the venomous pain from his system and was now in the process of knitting his torn flesh with unprecedented speed.
Extremis was adapting. Spider-Man was adapting.
The symbiote tried to retreat, to escape the searing white tendrils, but Felix was relentless. Fingers tightening into a fist and then releasing, he unleashed a concentrated bolt of white lightning directly into the heart of the Sleeper. The creature let out a final, ear-splitting screech before being blasted back.
Felix collapsed to his knees, panting heavily. The room was silent except for the residual crackle of energy dissipating into the air. He glanced down at his hands, still flickering with the last vestiges of white lightning. The power was still there, latent, waiting to be called upon again.
But the fight wasn't over.
"You…you…!" He could see him. The white lightning that tore the Symbiote apart and revealed the man inside at last. Crossbones growled, the Symbiote slowly patching him up again.
Both men were nearing their limits yet both men could go on. That was the way of warriors.
The Sleeper roared and charged, its massive form barreling toward him. Spider-Man got up and webbed up to another platform. The Sleeper chased. Running while Spider-Man leaped and jumped.
'Finally!'
The third basin was in sight. As soon as it was close, Felix stopped and looked over the chemical basin. It was the same.
'Both the Symbiote and I are weakened. This will work!'
Behind him, the Sleeper gave chase. Spidey turned at the last second, jumped, flipping over the creature's head and landing on the other side of the basin. The Sleeper skidded to a halt, turning to face him with a snarl.
Spider-Man fired white lightning creature's chest, getting it off balance and toward the basin. The Sleeper stumbled. Felix fired again this time at the creature's legs, pushing with all his might.
The Sleeper stumbled, its grotesque form lurching toward the basin. Felix burst forward and slammed the creature square in the chest, white lightning bursting and exploding, and sent the creature into the green and white chemicals. The basin bubbled and frothed as the Sleeper writhed in agony, its body starting to disintegrate under the chemical assault.
The Sleeper's struggles grew weaker, the chemicals eating away at the symbiote. For a moment, he thought it was over.
But in a violent explosion, white-hot acid sprayed in all directions, and Felix barely had time to react. The Sleeper emerged from the basin, its form now entirely yellow and exuding a corrosive, acidic vapour. It lashed out with a stretchy arm, catching Felix across the chest and burning through his suit.
'Fuck!'
Felix gritted his teeth against the pain. His Extremis-enhanced healing factor kicked in, but the acid was incredibly potent. He had to end this quickly.
The Sleeper lunged again, and Felix knew his webbing wouldn't hold against the acidic creature at this point. He had to go in close. He ducked under a swinging arm and drove his fist into the Sleeper's midsection, feeling the acid sear his skin even through his suit.
'Not just its arms anymore! The whole thing is acidic!'
The Sleeper roared and slashed at him. He blocked, ignoring the pain, and planted a nasty kick to its side. It didn't do as much damage as he wanted. The thing barely moved.
Bam!
He was forced to meet it punch to punch. Issue was, it felt like a lightweight boxer going up against a heavyweight. Felix was beginning to lose.
Desperation fueled his thoughts. He scanned the room, his mind racing for a solution. His eyes landed on a series of large, pressurized tanks marked with hazard symbols—volatile chemicals, likely used in the manufacturing process of the acid that now coated the Sleeper. An idea sparked.
Felix was struck by a brutal swing of the arm, this time letting the momentum carry him backward toward the tanks. The Sleeper followed. Yellow and acidic, it was relentless. A monster that sought his death. Felix gritted his teeth, enduring the searing pain as he landed on all fours and lured the creature closer.
Reaching the tanks, without looking, he slammed his palm against a release valve, sending a jet of highly flammable gas spewing into the air. The room filled with the pungent odor of chemicals, the air growing thick and hazy.
Felix shifted to the side, waiting. The Sleeper lunged, acidic yellow-white arms outstretched, and Felix saw his chance. He raised his hands, summoning the last of his energy, and unleashed a powerful burst of white lightning directly at the leaking gas.
BOOM!
In the heart of the inferno, Felix saw it: the Symbiote's yellow-acidic form melting. The explosion was fast and massive, a fireball consuming everything. The world went red.
…
…
…
When the dust settled, Felix was on his knees, his suit torn and burnt in several places. His eye lenses were cracked, one of them completely shattered, leaving him partially blind. He struggled to his feet, his body aching with exhaustion and pain.
"Herbie...?"
No response. No analysis. All he could tell was that the entire fucking building was levelled. Debris lay everywhere.
A distance away from him, Crossbones lay on the ground, alive but without the symbiote that had made him the Sleeper. The mercenary was trying to crawl away, but Felix's anger and determination surged. His healing factor kicked in and he limped toward him.
'You...' Nothing but the hunger of vengeance ired him. 'Crossbones...!'
He made it. He was here.
He loomed over the mercenary, his shadow falling across the defeated villain. That was when Crossbones stopped and turned over to face his aggressor. The legendary mercenary was barely recognizable, his mask gone and his body covered in burns and acid scars. The symbiote was destroyed by the explosion and the chemical assault and now…
Now he was nothing.
"You're done," Felix said, his voice hoarse. "No more symbiote. No more terror."
"I…know you." His hair and lips were burnt to a crisp. This wasn't because of the explosion, Crossbones had long been afflicted with this. "You're that…scientist. Oscorp. You're from Oscorp."
Ah. The mask had broken apart.
'Who fucking cares?'
"Do you remember the kid you killed? Do you know his name?"
"...I remember. Reed…Richards…I was told to kill him." Crossbones laughed. "What, because of him? You became Spider-Man and ended three of the biggest crime organizations in New York because of a kid?"
Because of a kid. Because of his best friend.
"Get up."
Crossbones couldn't. As superhuman as he was, he wasn't a near immortal freak like him.
"I said get up."
Felix personally hauled Crossbones to his feet, nails gripping into the flesh of his shoulder. Half of his costume was torn to shreds and his web-shooters had imploded. He was human here, no longer Spider-Man, but Felix Faeth.
"Tell me who hired you."
Someone was behind him. Someone hired him. Someone was traitor. But who?
"Do you really think I'll tell you? You must be new to this, freak." His laughter was like chalk on a board. "What, are you going to send me to jail? Make me rehabilitate?"
"No."
A single word ended his arrogance. Because honestly...Felix expected this. No, maybe he wanted this. Not being told meant this could keep going on. Not being told meant this thrilling feeling could continue.
"If you won't tell me, then I'm going to kill you," Felix said plainly. "Now. Here's how it's going to happen. I pour a stream of webbing deep into your throat, your esophagus, all the way down into your lungs, filling them completely. The only way to remove it surgically would be to cut out your lungs, which could not possibly be done before you die from lack of oxygen. I turn your entire respiratory system into one big solid chunk of useless tissue and webbing. It takes three seconds. It'll be a slow, painful death."
Crossbones coughed weakly, a gurgling sound that might have been a laugh. "We'll see...about that..."
"One…"
His empty wrist pressed up to his mouth. Crossbones coughed and smiled.
"Two…"
From his charred wrists, a slit appeared. It wasn't a matter of failing to heal; this was the heal. This was the gift he had received from observing the Symbiote.
"Three."
Felix didn't hesitate. A stream of webbing shot from his wrist, straight into Crossbones' open mouth. The webbing forced its way down his throat, into his esophagus, and filled his lungs with ruthless efficiency.
Crossbones' eyes widened in shock and terror as he choked, trying to scream but producing only muffled gurgles. His body convulsed violently, his hands clawing weakly at the webbing that sealed his fate. Felix watched.
The webbing solidified quickly, turning Crossbones' respiratory system into a solid mass. The man's struggles became more frantic, then weaker, and finally ceased altogether. His eyes glazed over, and his body went limp.
Justice was served.