Getting down had been easier than I’d thought. A quick leap over to the next lower building, then down through it’s fire escape made it simple work. Now I as I ran amongst the crowd we faced the hard part. Resisting the constant nagging in the back of my head to let the suit take control, and trying to figure out just fast I needed to run.

  I was still strong without my suit. Still nimble. But my face was exposed. And unless I wanted to be first, well, second page of the newspaper tomorrow, it meant I had to look like I was moving relatively normally. That wasn’t exactly hard to do when everyone was running for their lives. Though it was a little hard to focus on keeping the right stride length when my brain was screaming at me to eat everyone.

  It wasn’t even squeak’s voice anymore, alien actions and thoughts reflecting something far more sinister within my mind no longer decipherable from my own. It was unnerving having your thoughts urging you to do something you didn’t want to do. What made it worse was I couldn’t even tell exactly when it had started. I didn’t know if I’d been walking around like a zombie for the past six months, thoughts fuelled almost entirely by the symbiote.

  Pete had said it had built up strength over time, but just how sure was he? It seemed like a spur of the moment conclusion, made under duress. What if the symbiote had been in more control than anyone could even guess this entire time. I could feel it know, pressing further, harder for me to let it back in completely. Telling me to stop running, to charge back towards that delicious energy and let my power run free. What if it’d been only waiting for the right moment, but steadily testing the boundaries of control to see just how much I’d notice?

  Would it really be like Dr Otto’s lab again? Or would it be worse? What if it hadn’t been a great alien monster, the devilspawn that’d tried to kill Peter and Jess in that hell hole? What if it’d been indistinguishable from the normal me? Would there have been any way to tell? What if it had taken control when I’d been at school? Or at home? I shuddered at the thought as the urging to run back grew even louder. More thoughts washed over me as I stumbled, fighting them back.

  I felt sick.

  I wanted to stop in the middle of the street, to grab at my skin, and desperately pull it apart. To scratch and scrape until whatever this darkness inside of me was, had disappeared for ever. I wanted to burn it away, purge it somehow, so I wouldn’t have to suffer, so that no one else would have to suffer. But also I didn’t.

  A part of me wanted to succumb to it, to let it take control so I could really feel it’s power.

  I didn’t know whether it was my own addiction to the suit and its power or a manufactured one. It didn’t matter. Thinking about it could only do me harm. I shook my head, glancing back as the bright flashes of greenish white illuminated the city, people running faster as the goblin and scorpion fought mid-air, Peter and Lucas swinging around as they desperately tried to get closer.

  I could feel it, even from here, the sheer weight of the NE that spilled out from the device the two fought over. My watched buzzed and I looked to it, quickly reading the message from Jess. She was already on her way. Thank God.

  Suddenly my spider sense rang out. I glanced back, eyes widening as scorpion and the goblin descended out of the sky, swerving wildly as they crashed against buildings and curved straight down. I dove to the ground as they passed over head, a wash of greenish whit energy blinding everyone.

  Screams echoed through the streets, caught beneath the incessant popping and whirring of whatever device they were fighting over. Then they were gone, up into the sky – back towards the direction we’d run from, pulled by the webs of the two spider-man. People pulled quickly pulled themselves up, and then everything went white.

  The sound of the boom hit me a second later, along with a the shock of so much NE my mind reeled. My ears rung as I sat up again, watching as Scorpion and the goblin, now smoking rose higher into the air, the two spider-men nowhere to be seen.

  No. They had to be ok right? They had to be.

  Others were sitting up now, some grabbing at their ears and others pointing up to the sky as the two villains continued rising. Another flash rocked us all, though this time less so, the distance helping. But as I looked up at the warped and twisting faint green energy, akin almost to a faded fireball of a nuclear blast, I became aware of just how much bigger this explosion had been compared to the last. Small explosions, like a peppering of fireworks exploded all around the two now, some running but most standing still as if watching, counting down until the next explosion.

  Then the NE of the second blast washed over me again and I gasped, collapsing onto my back as the thoughts and desires bit back with a vengeance. Crap. I needed to get out of here. I needed to find Jess and get as far away from here as possible. I turned, trying to force my way through the crowd but quickly fell to my knees, hands digging into concrete as I gasped, straining to keep the suit back.

  I needed help. I needed someone to help.

  “Help” I muttered. “Please, someone help”

  But reality hit me in only a moment. There was nothing any of these people could do to help me. In fact, by being here I was actively harming them. Did I say screw it and use the suit? No. Think straight you idiot. No suit. That was the whole point of this.

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  Then how did I get out of this? Crap. I should’ve asked for a web-shooter from Pete. I fumbled with my watching texting him desperately, even if it was futile, as each breath became more and more of a struggle. Shit. This was bad. It was winning.

  Groaning, I sat up, blood dripping down my nose, my vision blurry and body trembling. I’d really screwed up here. There were so many things I could’ve done to make this better. So many other things I should’ve done too. So many other things I should’ve realised before getting to this point. I cursed, forcing myself up again as a few people looked to me, offering helping hands.

  I waved them away as more people began to run all around us, the spattering of explosions growing louder and quicker, stumbling into an alley. Then another flash illuminated everything around me, this time people screaming as glass in the buildings all around shattered.

  But it was too late. I could feel it, my mind fading, sinking into deeper into nothingness. An echo chamber of laughter, evil maniacal laughter reflective of my own resounded in my head a million times over.

  This was the worse situation possible. It’d won.

  “Crap” I mumbled,, digging a fist into the ground. “No…”

  I tried to force myself to my feet, to make away as weak uncontrolled hands typed at my watch. I needed to tell Jess. So, she could at least save the people here or get rid of me.

  If it even matters at this point, I thought, my mind moving to the explosions above.

  Suddenly a hand grabbed me, shaking me as the streets shook.

  “Hey! Hey you! Wake up! You need to run!” a voice said. “Shit started collapsing. We need to get away!”

  I twisted around where I sat in the alley, looking to the man and woman that stood over me.

  “Shit, are you ok?”

  “Get away” I mumbled. “Please, get away”

  “What?”

  “Get away!” I roared. The duo cursed, sprinting away desperately as I fell back to the floor, sinking deeper and deeper into darkness. But this time there was no dream, no false reality or smiling mother, it was only darkness and muted pain, the strength within my bones completely sapped from me.

  Then I opened my eyes, and it was different.

  The sense, the smell, the power, everything was different. Better. We were better. Slowly our body grew, tendrils seeping out from the pathetic form of our predecessor, twisting and turning and folding in on itself until the proper form was back.

  Slowly we stood, shaking of the last dregs of sleep that had bounded body of strength, before rising tall, embodying the form in all its glorious enormity. With a forked tongue we licked at the air, our taste buds bursting with euphoria at the pure and boundless energy that simply floated around. Then we looked above to the explosions of green that illuminated the sky, and we smiled.

  “Perfect” we muttered. “We’re back.”

  -

  Jess had never been so terrified in her life. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, but this had to be one of the moments that was up there. Seeing the peppering pops of green explosions, slowly growing bigger and bigger in the skyline out in front of her, knowing that Lucas and Peter were out there trying to stop it on the fly, that Yu was somewhere out there too, struggling to maintain his sense of self, fighting that thing within the confines of his own mind? The notion of the last thing alone was practically torturing her. Combined it was the stuff of nightmares. For the first time in a while, she truly felt like this could be the end of her world.

  She cursed, firing another web. In a matter of minutes she’d gone from annoyed, to fearful for the safety of the entire city, and her fellow spider-men, but most importantly her closest friend.

  She was practically kicking herself for not realising Yu’s situation earlier. She could understand why Peter, hadn’t. He’d been busy, worried about other stuff. But she and Yu spent nearly every day together. She should’ve seen. Should’ve noticed the small differences in his behaviour. The desire for chocolate, his sudden and contradicting desire for more meat and the want to become a vegetarian, the weird off-colour jokes, the mood swings. It was all right there, staring at her. She didn’t know how she hadn’t noticed.

  No, she thought, I did notice. I just didn’t do anything about it.

  She could try and justify it to herself, tell herself that I wasn’t a problem, and that she couldn’t have expected herself to know that this was exactly what was happening, but it didn’t make the situation any better. It didn’t change the fact that her best friend might be losing himself all over again, and that they were all the worse because of it.

  She shuddered, firing another web as she flew between the streets, eyes fixed to the explosions growing bit by bit.

  Shit, she thought, Dammit, this is bad.

  Her watch buzzed suddenly, and she looked down to it, to the message from Yu.

  It was shirt. Only two words.

  Too late.

  Her blood ran cold.

  “Too late?” she muttered fretfully. “Yu? Shit. Dammit, shit. What do you mean too late?”

  She slowed as she neared, before landing a top one of the buildings. She looked to the further down, to the explosions that centred around the two villains as they fought, veering wildly above the Empire State. She had to ignore it. She had something else to worry about now. She just had to trust Lucas and Peter had this.

  She looked down to the crowd, then checked her watch again, trying to understand what the message meant. There wasn’t a monster from hell racing about through the streets and tearing people apart so that was a good sign, but she was still incredibly unnerved.

  He had to be somewhere among the people here. He’d said he was running towards her. It might be difficult for her to see him, but he could see her easily. He’d text and then they could get out of here. It’d be fine. He’d be fine.

  Repeating it isn’t going to make it any more likely, she thought.

  She repeated it anyway, looking out over the crowds below, trying not flinch with every explosion, as the words of the text still rang through her mind.

  She looked back to the message and sent a text of her own, foot tapping restlessly as the seconds stretched out, each one longer than an eternity.

  “Just answer dammit” she muttered. “Please answer.”

  Then a loud crash shook the building a few down from her, people in the street screaming as they scattered. The horrible yet familiar screech met her ears only a few seconds later.

  “No” she muttered, already rushing forwards. “Please not again. Not now!”

  But as she swung out down into the street, she recognised the monstrous form that clambered up and along the wall face, towards the explosions above the Empire State. It slowed suddenly, glancing back to her as she landed beneath it, its mouth spreading out into an inhumanely wide and sharp toothed grin.

  “Deliciousss”