Regular criminals really were the easiest of pickings. They were beyond slow, beyond weak, beyond brittle. And so scared. I could smell it pouring off them, in a way I hadn’t before. It was good to feel that fear.

  To know these guys were afraid of me, that they regretted every decision that’d led to this moment. The strength the feeling brought was new, but not unwelcome. Good. Maybe it was a little too good. It was hard not revel in it, but the fighting kept me focused. Well as focused as I could be against these shmucks.

  I kicked one already knocked out, sending him careening into another robber before they both smashed into a car. Then my spider sense blared and I dodged another gunshot before flinging one guy into another, the two crunching together with muffled screams of pain. The gunman continued to open fire on me, too afraid to aim properly. Around us civilians screamed as his friends barged through them running as hard and as fast as they could.

  I laughed to myself. These guys were good, far faster than the average person. Probably even ex-military, trained. And they were still nowhere near fast enough. I grabbed him with an outstretched tentacle, the man crying out as I held him with a vice like grip. Then, in a single bound, I leapt forwards, practically flying through the air, as I sailed over the last of the criminals. I crashed down against the asphalt cracking underfoot as the guy in the grip of my tentacle cursed as he writhed and squirmed.

  The criminals in front of us slowed and opened fired, their aim better but nowhere near good enough to match my speed and sense. I weaved easily through the mess of bullets, before taking them out with satisfyingly loud punches.

  The first gunman, still wrapped in my grip swore repeatedly as I swung him around, bringing him face to face. He spat at me.

  “Well, that wasn’t very nice” I muttered.

  “Fuck you! Do you know who my dad is? He’s a fucking important guy ok?!”

  “Oh, go on”

  “He’ll fucking kill you. He’ll fucking kill you and your fucking stupid fucking spider friend’s and-”

  I slammed him against the car next to me before dropping him to the floor. He remained still for a moment, dazed, before with an agonised jerking movement he grasped as his ribs.

  “You were saying?”

  The guy wheezed, grasping desperately at his chest. I looked up and around at all the chaos, squinting.

  “See this is what I hate about criminals like you” I mumbled, picking him up. “You rob and you steal and for what? Yourselves? To make a few thousand more?”

  I spun him around, holding him upside down as he wheezed struggling for air.

  “I mean look at all the chaos. Look at what you did.”

  I spun him around slowly, before grabbing him by the neck.

  “Please” he gasped.

  “We should kill you guys” I muttered. His eyes widened as my grip on his neck tightened. “Wow. That felt good to say.”

  “No” he mumbled his face growing red, “please… please.”

  “You know it’s just been in the back of my head for a long time, but I’m only just now starting to consider it. I don’t know why I didn’t before. I mean, we kill the big monsters, the ones who don’t look human. But you slap a human face on a criminal and suddenly it’s all taboo. You think if I start with you, anyone will care? I doubt it”

  “Please” he begged, “Please I won’t rob ever again.”

  “Or hurt anyone”

  “Or hurt anyone” he mumbled.

  “No” I chuckled, “You won’t.”

  I pulled him closer, opening my mouth as my teeth grew sharper.

  Perfect

  I hesitated, then blinked remembering myself.

  What the hell?

  Suddenly something grabbed me and I was yanked back through the air. I crashed to the floor, quickly pulling myself up before looking behind me. Lucas landed down, webbing the guys unconscious criminals to the ground before grabbing me by the neck. I wrenched myself away, leaping back.

  “Hey?!” I cried. “What’re you doing?”

  “What am I doing?” he said, angry. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Fighting crime”

  “What the fuck were you about to do with that guy?”

  “I- I don’t know. I was just knocking him out”

  “What?!” Lucas shouted. “Are you fucking serious?!”

  “I- yeah. What? What did I do?”

  He remained silent, looking around at the destruction all around us, shaking his head.

  “You’re fucking- you’re done. We’re going back to HQ right now and I’m calling Peter. Something is wrong man”

  “No way!” I shouted angrily.

  “No way?” he said, turning back to me.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Where do you get off telling me what I can and can’t do? Where I do and do go?”

  Lucas grabbed me by the lapel and I slapped his hand away, the clenched my fists.

  “Don’t even try that” I said. “We both know I’m stronger than you.”

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  “You know, we’ve just been waiting to fight you” I said.

  “What?!” he shouted, instantly on guard. I widened my stance, stepping closer as my ears began to ring. I felt weirdly distant from myself, aware of my own movements but not the arbiter myself.

  “Hey! Knock it off” a voice suddenly cried. The feeling vanished as Peter landed down, between the two of us, the fight leaving me. “What the hell is wrong with you two?” he said.

  “Somethings wrong with Yu” Lucas said, his voice cold. “I think it’s his suit. It’s messing with him.”

  “What? I was dealing with these criminals, and he landed down and just grabbed me” I said. “He started it.”

  “I don’t care who started it, stop. Both of you”

  “Or what? What’re you going to do?”

  “What? Yu…” Peter said turning to me.

  “What the hell kind of team is this?” I muttered, the feeling taken me again. “You get a little rough with the bad guys and suddenly they turn on you?”

  “Yu what’re you talking about?” Peter said stepping forward.

  “I told you” Lucas said, my spider sense blaring as he stepped closer. “Something off. Just look what he did to the criminals”

  Peter looked around for a moment, his manner changing as he stepped towards me.

  “Yu” he muttered his tone, warning.

  “Are you serious? You’re going to listen to him? I’m fine.” I said. “I mean what the hell? Why’re you even here? Have you been following me? Do you have a fucking tracker in my suit?”

  “What? No. Jess called” Peter said angrily, “she said you were acting weird and just disappeared.”

  “God. Is she getting all pissy because of a fucking joke?”

  “Lucas you stay here, talk to the police. Yu, come with me back to HQ, we need to have a talk”

  “No”

  “Yu”

  “We can talk here if you want to talk”

  Peter went silent, his eyes narrowing as he watched me.

  “Spit it out then” I said impatiently.

  “Yu there’s something wro-”

  Suddenly a notification beeped on Lucas and Peter’s watches. They looked to them.

  “Shit, scorpion?” Lucas muttered. “What the hell is he doing by the Empire State?”

  “The rooftop lab maybe?”

  “What? There’s one near the Empire state?”

  “Yeah, it’s a few buildings over. Maybe Kingpin trying to kick Osborne while he’s down. Doesn’t matter. I’ll deal with this. Yu, you stay here. Lucas stay with him”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah”

  “Go it”

  “What!?” I shouted. “No way. If this is Scorpion then you guys need me.”

  “Yu-”

  “Fuck off” I said. I leapt up and fired a web, pulling myself through the air into a swing.

  “Yu dammit!” Peter shouted behind me. I ignored him, flying forward through the air. I kept my attention forward, focusing on swinging, but the thoughts nagging at me simply wouldn’t leave.

  I didn’t understand it. The visceral hate that’d suddenly overtaken them all because I’d let my anger get to me a little bit. I stepped out of their box for half a second and suddenly they wanted to constrain me even more, force me to bend to their will under a greater scrutiny. All these tests, all the monitoring and the questions and the doubt. I hated it. I hated it so much. More than anything. It’s like a was a lab rat or something.

  I glanced back as they followed behind me, feeling their waves of anger.

  They’re afraid.

  What? Squeak? How’re you-

  They’re afraid of us. Just like everyone else, just because they don’t understand.

  I glanced back again. I could feel it now. Anger was there, but fear was there as well. Emanating from them, swirling in tantalising patterns as it proliferated through the air. I was familiar with both of theirs. The depth of it, the sweetness. It had been one. And Lucas’

  I wanted to taste it again. I needed to. To soak in the fear, revel in it. In the strength and the power it brought me. I needed the blood too, or just the raw power itself. It’d faded to almost a memory now. The bomb yesterday had been good, but not enough. And it’d been so long since the girl. So long since the glorious explosion. I’d become shackled for a while, but now I was free again. No, not free. Nearly free.

  I still needed time. The final wisps of power were yet to grace my tongue. My hunger was yet to be sated.

  We needed to eat.

  I paused. My eyes widening as I became aware of myself once again. My heart thumped hard in my chest as a new panic took me, pulling apart the web of lies and manipulation I’d imposed upon myself. Instantly everything came crashing down

  My body slammed hard against the roof of a building, rolling across it before crashing into a wall of cement. It cracked under the force of the impact as I lay still for a second, reeling - not from the blow, but from the revelation itself.

  “I need help” I muttered, grabbing the sides of my head. “I don’t… I need help.”

  “Yu?!” Peter said, landing.

  “I need help” I said, looking up at him. “It’s I- don’t know. It’s infected me somehow.”

  “What? The symbiote?”

  “I knew it” Lucas said, landing down next to him. “I can handle scorpion if you want. It’s probably best to take him back. We don’t want this getting out of control.”

  “No. We don’t” Peter said. “Yu, can you stand?”

  I nodded, taking his hand as I pulled myself up.

  “Alright let’s get you back to HQ. I’ll call Jess an-”

  A burst of light washed over the city, shifting quickly into green. We all spun, watching as a strange billowing wash of green energy. Within it, over the rooftop lab, the goblin, and scorpion careened through the air atop the glider.

  “Shit” Peter cursed.

  “I can handle it” Lucas said. “Take Yu and go.”

  “No” Peter mumbled. “This isn’t- this isn’t something you can handle alone.”

  “What?”

  “We need to stop them fast. Together. I don’t know how he got his hands on a NE stabiliser but it’s clearly damaged and having a serious effect on the surroundings. Shit. We need to stop him now. This is dangerous. Really dangerous”

  “It could mutate people?”

  “Yeah. And it could cause a chain reaction that could detonate all the NE in New York.”

  “Jesus”

  “Dammit” Peter said, looking to me.

  “What?”

  “I think I just understood. The goblin bomb was just NE, not a hallucinogen. Your suit, the symbiote, it feeds on NE. Stores it. No wonder you’ve been going crazy. It’s taking more and more control as it builds strength.”

  My eyes widened, everything clicking into place.

  “Shit” Lucas muttered. “I- sorry, I should’ve realised that.”

  "It's ok. Uh... dammit. Ok. Yu, you need to go. Quickly and far from here. If it absorbs too much, we could get a repeat of Tombstone’s tunnels.”

  Don’t listen to them. They’re just afraid of ussss. We need to eat.

  We need to eat.

  I flinched away from the voice, reabsorbing my suit in its entirety.

  “Wait if we need everyone, who’s going to deal while the other takes Yu back?” Lucas asked.

  Peter was silent, looking between me and the still spiralling villains. We were wasting time. I wasn’t about to have the city maybe blow up because I couldn’t keep my head on straight.

  “I’ll go alone. Meet Jess back at HQ”

  “Yu”

  “I promise” I said. “This is me speaking. I'm not lying to you”

  “Dammit. Alright. Message Jess and find a safe space. Meet her ask quickly as possible, head towards your school and meet in the middle if you can. And try not to use the suit. Got it?”

  "Yeah" I nodded. Without another word, Peter turned and leapt into action, Lucas - sparing me a nod - followed quickly behind, as another wave of power washing over the sky.

  I stared at it, feeling a sudden and deep hunger, a desperation accompanying it. One I hadn’t felt in ages. Not since the sewers, after Lucas had torn us limb from limb. I shook my head violently, wrenching my mind away from the thoughts.

  "Jess. Message Jess" I muttered, quickly tapping away at my watch.

  Hopefully she wasn’t so pissed off she ignored my messages. Message done, I looked around the rooftop, feeling practically naked without my suit.

  “Crap. How the hell do I get down?”