Chapter 33: Sinister Six - Part 1

I shot a web-line from my web-shooter and swung through the air.

A red afterimage raced across the nighttime city.

This is New York. Midtown.

The target location... there it is.

The electronic billboard on the side of a building wasn’t in use at this time of night.
During the day, it’s filled with J.J.J. Jameson's obnoxious face, but at night, it sleeps quietly.

The entire side of the building was covered in dark LCD screens.
It’s the headquarters of the Daily Bugle.

I climbed up the side of the building and slipped inside through a small ventilation window.

My goal was to retrieve and review a snuff film—a recording of the murder of the Green Goblin—which Jameson was rumored to possess.

The one who killed Goblin was Redcap.
I saw it happen right in front of me.

And yet, Jameson was claiming that I was the one who killed him.
He even said there was footage to prove it.

...Could that be true?
There shouldn't be any footage in the first place.
Unless... unless there’s been some kind of doctored video?

In any case, I had to get my hands on the evidence.
That’s why I was sneaking into the Daily Bugle building.

I’ve been here tons of times as a part-timer, so I know the layout inside pretty well.
I made my way to the seventh floor—Jameson’s office, which also doubles as his editor-in-chief and president’s office.

It was locked, but it was a pretty standard doorknob lock.
I pulled out a lockpicking gadget—something Mr. Stark explicitly told me never to misuse—and used it to open the door.

The room was huge, but all it had was a single desk in the center.
...No, wait. There was also a massive photo of Jameson on the wall.

Calling it egotistical would be too kind—he’s a man with an extremely strong sense of self.

Still, I don’t think he’s a bad guy. He hates criminals and villains as much as anyone.
That’s why I’m guessing he’s been duped this time.

I rifled through the desk and found a single USB drive.
It was labeled: “The Truth Behind GG’s Death!”

GG… That must mean Green Goblin.

I started to store it in a compartment on my suit when—

"You there! What do you think you're doing!?"

A loud, booming voice rang out.

I whipped around in panic—and there he was. Jameson.

"You menace! You damn Spider-Menace! You came here to steal my evidence, didn’t you!? Have you no shame!?"

"Ah, no! It's not what it looks like! I was just—"

"I don’t want to hear it!"

He cut me off before I could explain, shouting with nothing but fury.
And well... he wasn’t wrong. I was here to steal the evidence.
There was no excuse for that. I raised both my hands in surrender.

"No, really! I think the footage might be—"

"...Just kidding."

Suddenly, Jameson grinned. His tone shifted bizarrely—

—and then I was thrown backward.

The desk in the room, the photo on the wall, everything exploded outward.

"Ugh!"

The wall of windows behind me shattered.

I barely managed to stick a web to the ceiling and hang on.

If I fell from this height, even I’d end up seriously injured.

Somehow, I managed to steady myself.
But when I looked back toward Jameson—he was dissolving into green mist.

"What the hell was that...?!"

The room darkened.

From the sky, dozens of gravestones came crashing down and stabbed into the floor.

The ceiling turned pitch black and stars began to shimmer.
Around me, pillars rose up like I was inside the Roman Colosseum.
The floor looked like soil now, too.

It was like a dream... No.
It wasn’t reality anymore.

My spider-sense was screaming at me that the world I was seeing was fake.

"...Who's there!? Stop hiding and come out—"

"I'm not hiding at all! I’ve got no reason to, after all."

A voice from behind me. I turned.

There stood a man in a green suit, wearing a spherical helmet that reflected like a mirror.

"Where’s Jameson!?"

"Jameson? Oh, you hadn’t figured it out? The one you just saw was just an illusion."

With a snap of his fingers, Jameson appeared right beside him.

"I am Mysterio—the magician who manipulates the truth."

He snapped his fingers again—and Jameson began to bloat—

—and then exploded.

"Whoa!?"

It wasn’t just an illusion.
A real shockwave came at me with brutal force.

I was blown straight through an unseen wall and tumbled into the next room.

The bizarre illusions were still playing out in the other room, but this one looked perfectly normal.

"...Sigh. Shocker, can you tone down the output a bit?"

"I don’t owe you anything, man. I’ve got no time for your theater crap."

A figure stepped out from the illusion-filled room.

Large gauntlets on his hands.
A yellow suit. Brown protective armor.

I recognized that look. My mouth moved on its own.

"...Herman?"

"Huh? Spider-Man, you dumbass... I go by Shocker now—"

Shocker raised both arms toward me.

My hyper-awareness—my Spider-Sense—screamed out a warning.

"I told you before!"

The next moment, Shocker’s gauntlets lit up gold, and a shockwave blasted out.

I’d fought Shocker—Herman Schultz—once before.
Back then, he was robbing a bank and had just destroyed a vault with his Vibro-Shock Gauntlets when I ran into him.
I almost lost that fight, but I figured out a structural weakness in his gauntlets and managed to beat him.

That weakness? If I webbed up the trigger buttons on his gauntlets, he couldn’t fire his shockwaves.
...But now, those weak points were nowhere to be seen.
His new gauntlets had clearly been upgraded.

He built them himself, after all.
As an inventor, fixing design flaws must have been his top priority.

In any case, I had to focus on what was right in front of me.

I braced my hands together and kicked off the ground backward with my feet.

My strategy?
Don’t try to take the shockwave head-on—redirect it by letting my whole body ride with it.

I was launched through the air, but I twisted mid-flight and rolled against the wall to absorb the impact.

"Tch!"

Shocker clicked his tongue in frustration, annoyed he couldn’t land a solid hit.

"Wow, two-on-one? What a surprise! Can’t win alone, so now you’re ganging up on me?"

I quipped as I scanned for any opening.
Mysterio with his trickster illusions.
Shocker with his direct-range shock attacks.

They’re both dangerous foes, no doubt.
But if they can’t land a decisive hit, I can still win this.

I leaned back against the wall and stood up when—

"Hmm."

Mysterio placed his hand to his face and let out a thoughtful sound.

"When did I ever say it was just the two of us?"

"What?"

The wall behind me burst open—and two silver arms shot out.

They grabbed me in a crushing bear hug and lifted me into the air.
As I struggled against the vice-like grip, I turned to identify the attacker.

"Rhino, too...!?"

"Long time no see! Now DIE!"

Rhino tightened his hold, trying to crush me in his grip.

He’s a former mercenary-turned-criminal.
Wearing a rhinoceros-themed powersuit, he takes jobs ranging from robbery to protection work.

He’s a brute-force type... but—

"Kh... Haaah!"

I threw my arms out with all my strength, breaking free from his grasp.
He’s strong, but if we’re talking pure upper body strength, I’ve got the edge.

I followed up with a spinning kick to the exposed part of his face and jumped back to create distance.

"Three of you... I’m hoping that’s it?"

Even as I said it, I stayed alert.
No doubt—more were coming.

I closed my eyes and focused all my senses on my Spider-Sense.

...The window!

An orange sphere flew in from outside.
I reacted on instinct, kicking it midair.

It exploded above me, but I took no damage.

...But wait—this is the seventh floor.
No one should be able to reach this window unless they’re flying.

I looked out—

"Green Goblin...!?"

There he was—riding a glider shaped like a futuristic skateboard.

"No...! I am the New Goblin!"

And that voice—

It was Harry’s voice.

"Why…!?"

Bat-shaped shuriken came flying at me.

No, I already knew the reason.

He thinks I… killed his father, Norman.

I knocked the shuriken out of the air with a web shot.

I scanned my surroundings.

Shocker and Mysterio.
Rhino and Goblin.

That makes four… and yet, my Spider-Sense was still warning me of unseen danger!

Clack. The door opened.

"...Uh, whoa. Looks like things are getting wild in here…"

…Who’s that?

A short-haired guy in casual clothes walked in.
Completely out of place.

At first glance, he looked like an innocent bystander who’d been caught up in the chaos.
Even my Spider-Sense didn’t react to him at all… which made it all the more unsettling.

It was the middle of the night, in the Daily Bugle building—
and even after seeing all of this, he only seemed slightly surprised. Not scared.

There’s no way this guy is normal…!

"Oh, Spider-Man! Man, I always wanted to see you in real—"

"I’ve found you!"

Suddenly, the man’s voice twisted, overlapping with several others—deep, unnatural, and echoing.

"Sigh. Try not to go overboard."

"I can’t help it, Eddie! I can’t stop it! I won’t stop it!"

In an instant, the man’s body was engulfed in black, tar-like goo.

It morphed and expanded into a towering, nearly two-meter-tall muscular form.

Across its chest was a white spider-like symbol.

Its head looked vaguely like mine—like Spider-Man—but its mouth was stretched wide open, jagged fangs exposed in a monstrous grin.
A long tongue slithered out and drooped down to its neck.

"It’s been a year, Spider-Man!"

I’d never seen that form before.

This was supposed to be our first meeting.

"You left me at that church a year ago! After that, I went through hell! Got sliced into seven pieces by freaks! Now I’ll cut you up the same way!!"

Those words—I did remember them.

A year ago… abandoned at the church…?

Right. When I was fighting in space with the Avengers, something like black tar got stuck to my suit.

My costume turned pitch black, and when I wore it, I felt tougher… like fear didn’t exist anymore.

I called it the "Black Suit" and used it for a few months.

But the longer I wore it, the more I realized it wasn’t just strength—it amplified my anger too.
I couldn’t control myself anymore.
I started going too far on criminals, constantly feeling irritable.

A space-savvy teammate told me it was a parasitic lifeform called a symbiote.

Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to give it up. The benefits were too tempting.

But then things got out of hand—almost to the point of no return.

So I took advantage of its weakness to sound.
I threw myself into a church bell and tore it off me, flinging it to the floor.

They said a symbiote wouldn’t survive more than an hour without a host.

I was so exhausted by that point, I just left the Black Suit there.

I never imagined someone else had been there… and had taken it.

"I thought you were the perfect host! But I was wrong! The guy I’m with now is weak and stupid—"

"Hey! That’s harsh!"

"Sorry! But it’s true!"

While arguing with its host from inside, the mutated Black Suit—now enormous—marched toward me.

"I’m far stronger now than when I was bonded with you! I’ve evolved way beyond that! I’m not the same creature anymore! I am… no—"

That massive arm swept across the room, obliterating half of it.

The carpet was ripped up, exposing the bare subfloor beneath.

I stepped back just in time to dodge it, but if it had landed… no doubt I’d be seriously hurt.

…And then I noticed something.

My Spider-Sense wasn’t reacting at all.

This guy… he’s got a natural counter to me!

“We are Venom!”

With a stomp, the floor shattered beneath his feet, and that hulking form charged me with terrifying speed.

Tendrils extended from his arms, snagging me just as I tried to dodge.

Damn—!

I’m so used to relying on my Spider-Sense to anticipate attacks that when it doesn't trigger, my reactions lag.

He slammed me into the floor, then stomped down from above.

The floor couldn’t handle Venom’s raw power—it caved in.

Venom and I crashed through to the floor below—
then again, smashing straight through into the level beneath that.

“Ghh—let… go!”

Falling, I fired a web at the nearby window, yanking on it.

The glass shattered under the strain.

Crash!
The loud sound disrupted Venom’s movements for just a second.

So the weakness to sound still works!

I kicked Venom away with everything I had and took some distance.

Breathing hard, I backed off.

From the upper floor, Shocker, Rhino, Goblin, and Mysterio dropped down.

And Venom slowly got to his feet.

That made… five.

Mysterio stepped in front of me.

“How about it, Spider-Man? This is the team I gathered just to bring you down—
The Sinister Six!”

“Six…?”
I laughed through the pain, trying to buy time to recover.
“You really that bad at math? I count five…”

That’s when it hit—
A violent surge through my Spider-Sense.

I bent my body backwards just in time, bracing for a side attack.

A gunshot rang out.

The bullet whizzed past my face, embedding itself in the wall behind me.

“…You’re—”

I trembled at the sight.

Someone I recognized.

“Now we’re six, Spider-Man.”

Redcap.

A figure in a red mask stood there.