Warm blood sprayed like rain, and everyone it touched panicked instantly.
No one had expected the Black Wolves' boss, who usually strutted around like he owned the world, to meet such a spectacular end right in front of everyone. Now he was everywhere. The mangled flesh on the ground was him. The blood on people's clothes was him. He was here, there, and everywhere.
Soon, under the crowd's horrified and stunned gaze, three more mechanical arms emerged one after another, and a figure in a red-and-black Spider suit descended through the air with the support of those metal limbs.
"Oh my God, what is that?!"
"Those are octopus-like mechanical arms. Did Spider-Man mutate?!"
"Those tentacles look familiar. Don't they look kind of like that monster on the bridge?!"
"I bet Spider-Man ripped those arms off that thing and attached them to himself!"
But the aura coming off this tentacled Spider-Man was deeply unsettling.
Everyone instinctively backed away in fear.
No one knew whether this ruthless figure might hurt them too.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
The claws at the ends of the mechanical arms dug deep into the pavement, sending fragments flying. The tentacled Spider-Man looked down at the terrified crowd from above.
"Don't be afraid. The bad guy's already dead!"
"Now I have a question for all of you. Is this world's Spider-Man Peter Parker or not?!"
Maybe it was because his presence was too overwhelming, but not a single person dared answer.
The tentacled Spider-Man grew impatient. One mechanical arm shot out, grabbed the young man who had tried to stand up to the gang earlier, and yanked him right in front of him. The crushing power of the metal claw made the man cry out in pain, and blood began seeping through his clothes.
"You answer me. Is this world's Spider-Man Peter Parker or not?!"
"You... aren't you Peter Parker?!"
The young man felt like his head was splitting apart. He could not break free from the mechanical arm at all, and he could not understand what the other man even meant. His whole body started shaking uncontrollably, and then a yellow stain spread down his leg.
Yeah. He was under a lot of pressure.
"Peter Parker?!"
"No! I am the Superior Spider-Man! Otto Parker! Tell me where Spider-Man is, or I'll kill you!"
Otto Parker's words sent the terrified man into complete despair. He had thought this person appeared to protect civilians, but instead he was threatening one. Was this really Spider-Man?
This was nothing like the Spider-Man he knew.
"I've got to admit, Strange's portal magic is ridiculously useful. Way faster than swinging on webs. I'll have to ask him about it sometime."
"I'd like to think... that definitely isn't us. We wouldn't be that evil, right?!"
"Haven't you noticed those tentacles look familiar?"
"Huh? Now that you mention it, they really do look a lot like Doctor Octopus's..."
"As far as I know, he's basically Doctor Octopus and Peter Parker combined."
"Combined?! What does that even mean, they fused together?!"
At some point, Peter and the Dutch kid had arrived at the scene and already changed into their suits. The two of them stood there discussing Otto Parker while he showed off in front of the crowd.
The familiar sound of nonstop chatter made Otto Parker snap his head around.
Sure enough, he saw two familiar yet unfamiliar figures standing not far away.
One wore a black-and-red Spider suit similar to his own, except the spider emblem on the chest was shaped like a skull. The other wore a high-tech nanotech suit that looked even more advanced than the gear he had designed.
"I knew this world had a Peter Parker too! So what do you think of this body?! It's completely mine now! That idiot Peter is gone for good! Now there's only Otto Parker, the Superior Spider-Man!"
"Spider-Man! Let's see which one of us is stronger!"
Balanced high in the air on his mechanical arms, Otto Parker flaunted his power to the two of them below, as if proving that he had absolute control over the body.
"What exactly does he mean by that?"
"In one universe, Doctor Octopus used a special machine at the brink of death to switch souls with Spider-Man. That's how the Superior Spider-Man came to exist."
Peter clicked his tongue.
"Then what happened to the original Spider-Man?"
"He died, of course. Or at least, maybe a trace of his consciousness stayed behind in the body. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to influence Otto Parker and push him into becoming a new Spider-Man."
As Peter spoke, he mentally traced through the comic storyline.
If he remembered right, after the Ends of the Earth and Spider-Island events, a dying Otto Octavius managed to swap bodies with Peter Parker in order to steal his life and keep himself alive.
That Peter fought back for a while, but in the end he lost. Before dying, though, Peter used the mental link between them to force Otto to experience his entire life and memories, making him understand what had truly created Spider-Man.
Peter's consciousness died inside Otto's original body, but Otto was changed by those memories. He chose to try to become a hero, a Spider-Man better than Peter, and a better man than Otto Octavius had ever been.
Still, changing a person's nature that completely was never easy.
His actions could be influenced. His heart could be changed.
But compared to other Spider-Men, he was still a more violent Spider-Man.
Otherwise he would not have killed that Black Wolves leader just now. Another Spider-Man would have knocked him out, webbed him up, tossed out a line about being your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and disappeared.
"That really is awful."
"Awful? That's living the dream, if you ask me."
Peter couldn't help laughing.
Because later in the comics, Otto gave the body back, and that Peter basically inherited all of Parker Industries and a full set of advanced tech for free.
Of course, since the two of them had shared one body and mind for a time, they both ended up influenced by each other. The result was a more decisive, more aggressive Spider-Man who people liked even more.
"He even joined the Avengers for a while. Though he did get kicked out later."
"What?! He joined the Avengers too?! I thought I was the only one!"
The Dutch kid sounded genuinely shocked.
Peter glanced at him in surprise. If this guy had joined the Avengers too, then he really might be from the MCU after all.
"Still, that should be from later on. Right now he's still using Doctor Octopus's tentacles, so I think this version must have only taken over not too long ago. Otherwise he wouldn't have those arms. He'd have three spider-legs instead, and that would be a lot harder to deal with."
(End of Chapter)
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