It was absolute chaos. Fighting the monster in the depths of darkness far underground had been one thing, but up here, with thousands of people running beneath her as the sky caught fire? That was something else entirely. And not something she felt prepared for.

  The beast lunged at her again, cackling as it swiped and scraped with its ridiculously sharp claws, snapping its jaw shut before extending it’s forked tongue out just to scare her. Yu was gone again, replaced by whatever that thing was and twisted beyond all belief. It was horrible.

  She dodged again, a series of slashes and cuts that raked down the face of the building, tearing it to shreds that fell upon the people below.

  Dammit, she thought, Get a grip!

  She leapt upwards, firing webs at the monsters as it lunged at her. It grabbed the webs with incredible speed and yanked her towards it, jaw unhinging. Her eyes widened, but she let the momentum take her, flying forward as she fired a special type of webs.

  The monster's cackles were cut short, replaced by chokes as the expanding webs caught in it’s throat. Then she kicked it hard, back up the wall face, before wrenching down into the alley with a set of webs. She looked down, at the rushing crowds of people as they raced away from the chaos, her heart beating hard.

  A few people had been crushed by rubble. But most were still getting away. She just had to stick to the monster. She just had to keep fighting until help came. She could do this. She would. Had to. Quickly she leapt down, the beast still struggling to pull the web within it’s mouth apart. Without a moments hesitation she rained a maelstrom of blows down upon it, striking it hard enough to tear away the cloth of her suits and bruise her knuckles.

  It cried out, it’s movements slow and sluggish as it fought back, struggling to breathe. It's clawing became more desperate as he punches grew harder, the walls of the buildings and the asphalt beneath cracking more with every blow. Then she struck it hard, in one of the eyes and it shrieked with a ridiculous pain.

  She slowed, leaping back as an icy chill shot down her spine. The pain of its voice, it'd sounded so much like Yu. A part of it at least.

  She gulped, watching as the monster pulled itself up, coughing up the last of the grey expanding web. She couldn’t hurt it without hurting Yu.

  Then how did she incapacitate it? It was stronger, tougher, and its body could change shape at a moment’s notice. The only thing she had going for her was speed, and barely even that. She couldn’t keep choking it without maybe killing him. But would that even work. Had Lucas mentioned that it regenerated, or was she simply imagining a greater foe?

  “Annoying” the creature rumbled. “Ssso…. annoying”

  With a hissed snarl that transformed into a roar, the beast launched the dumpster at her, then leapt forward. She leapt out the way, catching the dumpster with webs before sending right back. The monster split it in two with a single punch and continued, unperturbed.

  Think dammit, she thought, leaping out the way of the attacks.

  She cursed as it sliced at her leg, slowing her. Instantly, it unhinged its jaw, charging at her like an animal. She dodged narrowly, one of the teeth gouging her side as she flipped, then kneed it hard in the face, leaping back as she launched a manhole at it with a web. It struck the monster, bouncing off its head before it hit a streetlight, ringing it like a gong. The monster paused, before roaring at it, throwing a car, and absolutely clearing the light.

  Her eyes widened. Noise. Yu had been sensitive to electricity, and high frequencies. She winced, stumbling backwards, tapping quickly at her watch, before finding the right setting.

  Perfect, she thought.

  “DIE!” the monster shrieked throwing a car at her. She leapt out of the way, as it crashed against a bunch of others in a sea of sparks, then turned the volume all the way up.

  The monster screeched, grabbing at its ears as its form shuddered violently, the goo rippling, as if recoiling from her. Then, with a sudden and desperate focus, it threw itself forwards, it’s monstrous form of tentacles and limbs flying towards her.

  She leapt into the air, and in its panicked delirium it crashed hard and fast into the wreck of cars behind her. The heat was instant and the shockwave that followed it shattered the watch before throwing Jess through the air. The fire and debris followed, a spray of molten danger. But the worst of the danger followed still, the roaring monster right behind.

  -

  Peter dragged himself out from the rubble of the rooftop, breathing hard as he looked up into the sky. The air was still flashing green, but the city was still intact. He breathed a sigh of relief, blinking the dark spots out of his vision as he scanned the rooftops around him. Lucas was nowhere in sight. Instantly his heart dropped.

  Shit, he thought. Dammit. Not like this. Not after everything.

  But despite the pain it brought he couldn’t dwell on the thought for too long. He had a city to save. Grief could come after. With a web fired forward, pulling himself up and toward the Empire State. Just from the devastation alone, he couldn’t quite believe the situation. One moment he’d been joking with Ned, both of them exhausted by the monotony of their work and the weight of failure, then he’d got called by Jess to go check on Yu. He hadn’t even been gone from the lab for longer than ten minutes. He clenched his fists tightly, before slamming against the wall, and beginning his climb.

  Everything had gone to shit so fast. It’d all happened in the blink of an eye. He’d been feeling overwhelmed, but now he could barely breathe. And it wasn’t because the air was practically on fire.

  He flinched away as more of the peppering pops, illuminated the sky, sudden a wash of heat over his skin and the tatters of his suit left. As he looked away from the stream of heat, his eyes caught Lucas, struggling to grip to the wall beneath him. A flash of relief calmed him, followed by an immediate concern. Lucas’ suit was in tatters too, singed skin and hair exposed by burn holes in it's fabric. He looked just as bad as Peter felt. But it was ok. He was still alive. Together they could stop this thing.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Suddenly a familiar roar echoed out across the streets, barely audible over the. He turned, and watched as - in a mess of fire, rubble and debris - Jess and the symbiote flew through the air, before crashing into a building as the civilians below ran.

  His mind practically short circuited. Even after sending Yu away, the symbiote had taken control. Maybe that's what it'd wanted. It didn't matter. That monster was back, and Jess was fighting it all alone. Again. He glanced up above him now, as the peppering of explosions slowed now, the energy building to the slow crescendo of another large explosion.

  Dammit, he thought. Shit, shit, shit.

  He didn’t know what to do. How to manage this without practically leaving Jess and hundreds, maybe even thousands of civilians to die to just for an attempt at stopping a bomb he wasn't even sure he could stop. But if he didn’t try to stop the bomb, then half the city would get obliterated, and the rest of it would be an unimaginable hellhole riddled people mutated beyond recognition. But he had to do something. He had to.

  But what? There wasn’t a good decision here. It was just death and more death. Like every other day. Like always. Just on a far larger scale. What was even the point? Even if he stopped this today what was stopping someone from trying it tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.

  One day, the bad guys are going to win

  “Peter!?” Lucas shouted over the deafening boom, beside him now. Peter looked to him, suddenly aware of himself again. “Why’d you stop?! You hurt?!”

  Peter shook his head, then with a deep breath centred himself. He needed to get a grip. He’d done this a hundred times before. It was simple. Just stop the bad guy, have faith in others, hope they had faith in you and move onto the next one.

  “Let’s go!” he shouted. Lucas nodded. And together they started upwards, towards the billowing green energy.

  They shot up the side of the building, running faster than ever before, with great leaps assisted by yanks from webs as the air shook with power, the harsh white-green glow growing closer as the Scorpion and goblin, atop the now stationary glider, wrestled over the damaged stabiliser.

  Without a word, the two of them leapt up, sling shotting ourselves up past the top of the building, and into the air. Peter felt my hairs stand up on end as he passed through the highest point of flux in the field, the power literally vibrating through his body. Then he passed through the end of the field into the deadzone between it and the stabiliser and crashed into the glider.

  It flipped as he stuck against it hard, grabbing quickly onto the other two. From there the chaos was instant. A series of shouts, cries, punches, slashes and stabs. Then they were spinning, fast, and the stabiliser was in the air above them, hero and villain alike.

  Lucas fired a web, pulling it back to us as he leapt for it, only to instantly be grabbed Scorpion and slammed into the rest of Peter and the Goblin. The glider tipped and they all fell, together, the glider dropping out the air. With a sharp kick, he leapt upwards off the Golbin’s chest, flipped past Scorpion, and snatched the stabiliser out of the air. With a web he pulled myself back towards the Empire state, landing against the building only a few floors from the top.

  Lucas landed above him, skidding slightly before he came to a stop, his arms covered in cuts from scorpion’s claws.

  “What do we do?” Lucas asked, his voice distorted by the thrum of energy. Peter looked down to the device as it glowed, almost blindingly. Then his eyes widened.

  “It’s… shit… it’s a compactor not a stabiliser but… no… fuck… no way” Peter muttered, looking the device over.

  “What? What happened?” Lucas muttered.

  “It’s a- was a theoretical storage device that- no there’s no time. It’s fucked. It's not something that can be turned off.”

  “Shit… shit. What do we do?” Lucas muttered, looking to him. Peter searched over the device. It was going to release another explosion soon. One big enough to blow apart the top of the building if he was guessing right. And if he was guessing wrong… he didn’t want to think about that. Either way, he couldn’t stop it. He just had to get it out of here somehow. But to where? There was no time. There wasn't a way to win this.

  No, he thought. Just think. Fucking think.

  “Uh- shit. Could we just throw it high into the sky every time it starts to explode?” Lucas asked.

  “No” Peter shook his head. “Explosions will get too big”

  “Uh… well we’re in like the safe area or zone whatever, right?” Lucas said panicking. “Can’t we just get out of here then let it blow up somewhere without all this NE? Over the sea.”

  “It’d detonate while you tried to swing away”

  “Uh- where’s the glider?”

  “It wouldn’t work. You’d still cook. The explosion will be thousands of times hotter than what we took straight to the face. The one after that hundreds of thousands. And dropping it in the sea is just a tsunami”

  “Then- shit. We do it anyway? Everyone dies if we don’t. Maybe only a few thousand if we do”

  The two of them looked to each other. Peter didn’t have the heart to tell him they didn’t have enough time to find the glider.

  He looked to the city below them, a wave of despair washing over him before he paused. They were beings with NE with their own fields. If he somehow combined his field with it upon detonation, then he might be able to bring it back under control. He’d have to be close to the bomb, he’d need to use the stabiliser in his watch too. But still it was probably nowhere near the size it needed to be contain the other one, but-

  His eyes widened.

  “Lucas I- you need to get out of here”

  “What? Why?”

  “Listen I’m going to blow myself up”

  “What?!”

  “The explosion might take out part of the Empire state, but the explosions after will be smaller. You’ll need to find the core and carry it till it loses all charge. You just have to stay high up for six or seven explosions. Ok?”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?!”

  “Lucas there’s no time”

  “Pete there’s-”

  “Look at me!” He shouted, breathing hard. “Tell me you’ll do it.”

  “… I’ll do it”

  “Good. Go qu-”

  Both their spider-sense blared, and they looked below. The goblin. Speeding up towards them fast enough to shatter the unbroken windows.

  Peter moved to protect the stabiliser core, but the goblin was too fast. It all happened in a blur. A struggle of hands, a shout, a spray of blood and a flash of pain. Then they crashed atop the Empire state, rolling in a mess of smoke, sparks and limbs.

  The stabiliser core skittered across the roof, as the three of them pulled themselves up. Instantly they all leapt for it, the goblin grabbing a hold of it a Peter’s webs stuck it’s front. He yanked it hard as Lucas tackled the goblin smashing him hard into the wall before smashing him against the floor. Peter’s eyes widened as Lucas slammed him down again, the contents of his bag spilling across the floor.

  The Goblin had another core. It’d be enough. He webbed the two towards, him, his hands shaking with adrenaline.

  “No! You bastard! No!” the goblin roared. Lucas kicked him hard into the wall, webbing him against it before looking back to Peter.

  “Shit. Are we doing it?”

  “No. We can use this” Peter said, quickly wrapping them all together as he pulled the stabiliser from his watch.

  “No!” the Goblin roared, wrenching himself free from the web. He dived at Peter, knocking the contraption free from his grasp, as it skittered, the stabiliser falling off.

  Instantly it’s sound changed, the light growing as the familiar roar that preceded the explosion shook the building. He’d barely put them together, and there wasn’t any time left. The bomb was going to go off and he wasn’t sure whether it would kill everyone or stop this madness. He felt the enormity of the pressure constrict his chest, as the hairs stood up on his neck. He’d failed.

  In an instant Lucas webbed the device and launched it into the sky with a throw that’s sound carried weight.

  They were all breathless for a second, staring into the sky in silence. Then, everything went white.