Chapter 5
The 10% milestone didn't come with a flash of light or a thunderclap. Instead, it was a quiet, cold expansion of Alex's consciousness. As he stood on the roof with Peter, the world beneath him didn't just feel like a collection of buildings and streets anymore; it felt like a single, breathing organism. He could sense the tectonic shifts miles below the crust and the thin, fragile layer of the atmosphere protecting them from the void.
[...Integration: 10.0% (Silver Surfer)...]
[...Milestone Reached: The Herald's Sight...]
[...Ability Unlocked: Trans-spatial Perception...]
"Alex? You're doing that thing again," Peter said, waving a hand in front of Alex's unblinking eyes. "The 'staring into the soul of the universe' thing. It's creepy."
Alex blinked, the violet glow receding from his pupils. "Sorry, Pete. Just... a lot of data hitting the sensors at once. I need to get home. My mom's making her 'special' lasagna tonight because Sarah won that art scholarship. If I'm late, she'll perform an autopsy on my social life."
"Go," Peter chuckled, his own mask lenses widening. "I've got to go explain to May why my school jacket smells like a swamp and burnt silicon. Good luck with the lasagna."
Alex didn't fly back. He ran. At 10% integration, his resting speed was already pushing the limits of what a human eye could track. He moved through the back alleys of Queens, a blur of motion that barely disturbed the air, and slipped through his bedroom window with minutes to spare.
The Dinner Table Duel
"Alex! Wash your hands, dinner's on the table!" Elena's voice rang out from downstairs.
Alex quickly shoved his torn shirt into the bottom of his laundry basket and threw on a fresh hoodie. He looked in the mirror. His skin had a healthy, almost metallic glow, and his eyes seemed deeper, like he was hiding a galaxy behind his irises. He took a deep breath, forcing his "Cosmic Awareness" to narrow down to the size of the kitchen.
He walked into the dining room to find a rare sight: the whole family together. His father, David, was opening a bottle of wine; Sarah was beaming, holding a letter from the Metropolitan Museum's youth program; and little Maya was trying to feed her peas to the cat.
"There he is," David said, grinning. "The man of the hour. Or, well, the brother of the woman of the hour. Sit down, son."
"Congrats, Sarah," Alex said, taking his seat. "The Met? That's huge."
"Thanks, Alex," Sarah said, though her eyes were searching his. She could still see the faint, lingering traces of the 'Silver Bat' in the way he held himself—the preternatural stillness of a predator. "I'm thinking of doing a series on 'Urban Legends.' You know, the things that go bump in the night in Queens."
"As long as it doesn't involve you hanging out in dark alleys for 'reference,'" Elena warned, serving a massive slice of lasagna. "The news is getting crazier. Did you hear about the seismic event near the Parker house today? They're saying a man with mechanical arms tried to rob a federal transport."
"I heard," David sighed. "And that silver vigilante was there too. Some people are calling him an alien. Others think he's a Stark experiment gone rogue."
Alex chewed his lasagna, which suddenly tasted like ash. His "Herald's Sight" was screaming. He could feel a pressure building in his skull—a signal originating from the moon, beamed directly into his subconscious. It was a rhythmic, pulsing code.
"Alex? You're sweating," Elena said, her motherly concern overriding the celebration. She reached out to touch his forehead. "You've been looking flushed for days. Are you sure you're not overworking yourself with those 'study sessions' at Peter's?"
"I'm fine, Mom. Just... the lasagna's a bit spicy," Alex lied, his heart rate spiking as the signal from the moon intensified.
Suddenly, a localized tremor shook the house. The plates rattled, and a glass of water tipped over.
"Earthquake?" David asked, grabbing the edge of the table.
"In New York?" Sarah whispered, looking directly at Alex.
Alex didn't answer. To his normal eyes, the room was just shaking. To his "Trans-spatial Perception," he saw a pillar of invisible energy slamming into the Earth's atmosphere, centered exactly on the coordinates of the Blue Area of the Moon.
[...Warning: Inbound Celestial Signal...]
[...Source: The Watcher (Uatu) - Direct Neural Link established...]
A voice, deeper than the ocean and older than the sun, echoed in Alex's mind.
"HERALD-FRAGMENT. YOU HAVE AWAKENED PREMATURELY."
Alex gripped his fork so hard the metal began to moan. He had to leave. Now.
"I... I forgot I left a chemical reaction running in the garage for my project," Alex blurted out, standing up so quickly his chair flipped over. "I have to go before it ruins the floor!"
"Alex, sit back down!" David commanded, but Alex was already halfway to the door.
"Sorry! Back in ten minutes!"
He didn't go to the garage. He sprinted into the backyard, dove into the shadows of the old oak tree, and willed the suit to manifest.
The black-and-red nanotech surged over him, followed by the blinding, liquid-silver chrome. But as the 10% milestone took full effect, the suit changed. The wings didn't just snap out; they became translucent, shimmering with a violet energy that looked like aurora borealis.
He didn't fly. He displaced.
In a heartbeat, he was no longer in Queens. He was standing on the surface of the moon, the silence of the vacuum absolute and chilling.
The Watcher's Warning
Alex stood in the dust of the lunar surface, his "Cosmic Awareness" providing him with an internal oxygen supply and thermal regulation. In front of him sat a citadel of impossible proportions—the home of Uatu, the Watcher.
A massive figure, towering thirty feet tall and draped in a regal, blue toga, stood on the balcony of the citadel. His eyes were void-black, reflecting everything that had ever happened in the multiverse.
"You are not Norrin Radd," the Watcher said, his voice vibrating through the very atoms of Alex's suit. "You are an anomaly. A soul from a world that is a story here, wielding the power of a world that is a story there."
Alex looked up at the giant. "You know about my reincarnation?"
"I see all that is," Uatu replied. "The 'System' you carry is a fragment of a multiversal engine, designed to balance realities. But by taking the template of the Surfer, you have drawn the gaze of things that should not be looking at this Earth yet."
"Galactus?" Alex asked, his voice tight.
"He is the least of your concerns," Uatu said, pointing toward the Earth. From this distance, the planet was a beautiful, blue marble, but Alex could see dark, oily streaks of energy beginning to coil around it. "Your presence has accelerated the timeline. The convergence of villains you call the 'Sinister Six' is merely a symptom. A cosmic rot is beginning. A 'Null-Space' entity has sensed the Power Cosmic in a child's hands."
[...Integration: 11.2%...]
[...Objective Updated: Protect the Core...]
"What do I do?" Alex asked.
"You must become the bridge," Uatu said. "The Batman to plan, and the Surfer to execute. If you fail, this reality will be unmade to fuel the next. Return to your home, Alex Miller. The first shadow has already landed in Manhattan."
With a flick of the Watcher's hand, Alex was slammed backward. The world blurred into a tunnel of light and stars.
Alex landed in his backyard with a bone-jarring thud, the silver suit smoking from the friction of the teleportation. He scrambled to his feet, retracting the armor and checking his watch.
Four minutes had passed.
He ran back into the dining room, breathing hard, his hair messy.
"Alex! What on earth was that?" Elena asked, standing by the sink with a towel. "The garage is fine. I just checked."
Alex looked at his family. They were safe. For now. But the Watcher's words echoed in his head: The first shadow has already landed.
"I... I tripped," Alex said, leaning against the doorframe. "I'm just clumsy today. Sorry for the scare."
He sat back down, picking up his fork. It was cold now.
Across the table, Sarah was staring at him. She saw the dust on his hoodie—white, fine, lunar dust that didn't belong in a Queens backyard. She looked at him, her eyes wide with a realization that terrified her.
"Alex," she whispered, so low only he could hear. "Where did you go?"
"To see the bigger picture, Sarah," he whispered back. "And it's not a pretty painting."
Suddenly, his phone buzzed in his pocket. A text from Peter.
PETE: Alex, turn on the news. Something just hit the Baxter Building. It wasn't a meteor. It was a man in a black suit. But it's not like your suit. It's... oily. Like living shadow.
Alex's grip on his fork tightened until the metal finally snapped.
"The Symbiote," he thought. "Venom is here. And he's not waiting for Spider-Man."
Alex didn't wait for his parents to excuse him. He grabbed a piece of garlic bread, muttered something about a "group project emergency," and bolted for the door. The "Herald's Sight" was vibrating at the base of his skull, a localized hum that pointed straight toward the heart of Manhattan.
He didn't take the subway. He didn't even use the rooftops of Queens. As soon as he cleared the neighborhood's line of sight, he triggered the suit. This time, he didn't manifest the silver plating. He needed to be a ghost, not a star. The matte-black nanotech of the Beyond suit enveloped him, the red bat symbol dimming to a dark, dried-blood crimson.
[...Directives: Intercept Anomalous Signature...]
[...Scanning: Baxter Building Perimeter...]
[...Warning: Organic-Silicon lifeform detected. Composition: Unknown...]
He landed on a gargoyle two blocks away from the Baxter Building, the home of the Fantastic Four. The skyscraper was a spire of advanced tech, but right now, its upper floors were wreathed in a thick, pulsating darkness. It looked like the building was being strangled by a giant, oily vine.
Alex switched to his "Detective Vision."
The scan was horrifying. The darkness wasn't just on the outside; it was seeped into the vents, the elevator shafts, and the laboratory levels. At the center of the mass, he saw a flickering blue heat signature.
"Peter," Alex whispered.
Peter was already there, but he wasn't the Spider-Man Alex knew. He was pinned against the glass of the observation deck, his red-and-blue suit partially covered by a viscous, black substance that seemed to be fighting its way under his skin.
Alex didn't hesitate. He engaged his thrusters and smashed through the reinforced glass of the 35th floor.
"Get away from him!" Alex roared, his voice amplified by the suit's speakers.
The black mass hissed—a sound like steam escaping a pressurized pipe. It slithered off the walls, coalescing into a hulking, faceless shape that stood nearly eight feet tall. It didn't have eyes, just a smooth, white-patched surface that mimicked a mask.
"COSMIC... FRAGMENT..." the creature gargled, its voice a chorus of a thousand whispers. "WE SMELL THE LIGHT. WE WANT THE SILVER."
"The Symbiote," Alex realized. It wasn't just looking for a host; it was sensing the 10% Power Cosmic flowing through his veins. To a parasitic entity from the void, Alex was a five-course meal.
Peter fell to his knees, gasping for air. The black goo was still clinging to his chest, forming a jagged, white spider logo. "Alex... it's... it's not just a suit. It's thinking! It's showing me things!"
"Don't listen to it, Pete! Fight it!"
The Symbiote lunged at Alex, its limbs turning into lashing tendrils. Alex flipped backward, his Batman training taking over. He fired a series of sonic pellets—a standard feature of the Beyond suit designed for crowd control.
BEEP-BEEP-BOOM.
The high-frequency blast hit the creature dead-on. The Symbiote shrieked, its form becoming unstable, ripples of grey-matter showing through the black.
[...Weakness Identified: High-Frequency Sonics (15kHz - 20kHz)...]
[...Weakness Identified: Thermal Energy (600°C+)...]
"It hates sound," Alex shouted. "Peter, use your webbing! We need to trap it in a sonic cage!"
But Peter didn't move. He stood up, his posture shifting. The fear in his eyes had been replaced by a cold, predatory focus. He looked at his hands, now encased in sleek, black-and-white gloves.
"No," Peter said, his voice deeper, more resonant. "It's not hurting me anymore, Alex. It's making me stronger. I can feel everything. The heartbeat of the city... the fear of that thing in front of us."
"Peter, it's a parasite! It's feeding on your adrenaline!"
"I've never felt more awake!" Peter snapped, and before Alex could react, Peter blurred forward. He didn't swing; he leaped with a ferocity that shattered the floor tiles. He tackled the Symbiote mass, his fists becoming a blur of black-clad fury.
The fight was brutal. Peter was faster, stronger, and far more violent than he had ever been. He wasn't just capturing the creature; he was trying to tear it apart.
Alex watched through his HUD, his "Cosmic Awareness" showing him the truth. The Symbiote was bonding with Peter's nervous system, bridging the gaps left by the spider-bite. It was a perfect, terrifying synergy.
[...Integration: 11.5%...]
[...Warning: Host 'Peter Parker' is entering a Berserker State...]
"Peter, stop!" Alex yelled, flying in to grab Peter's shoulder.
Peter spun around, his lenses narrowed into sharp, angry slits. He backhanded Alex with enough force to send the silver-bat flying across the lab. "Stay out of this, Alex! You have your 'Template,' I have this! We're finally equals!"
Alex hit a server rack, sparks flying around his suit. He stood up, the silver plating beginning to manifest over the black. He couldn't let Peter go down this path. The Batman template told him that an emotionally unstable superhuman was the greatest threat to a city; the Surfer template told him that the Symbiote was a stain on the cosmic order.
"I'm not doing this because I'm better than you, Pete," Alex said, his silver gauntlets glowing with a soft, violet light. "I'm doing it because I'm your friend."
Alex raised his hand, but he didn't aim for Peter. He aimed for the Baxter Building's emergency siren system. He tapped into the 11% of the Power Cosmic to amplify the building's internal speakers.
"System. Overload the audio grid. Frequency: 18.5 kHz. Maximum volume."
[...Executing...]
A wall of sound hit the room. It wasn't a noise; it was a physical force. The windows that hadn't already broken shattered into dust.
Peter screamed, clutching his head. The black suit began to boil, the oily substance trying to retreat from the agonizing vibration. It pulled away from Peter's face, revealing his terrified, tear-streaked eyes.
"ALEX! STOP IT! IT HURTS!" Peter wailed.
The Symbiote mass on the floor shriveled, turning into a small, frantic ball of goo that tried to find a shadow to hide in.
Alex cut the sound. The silence that followed was deafening.
Peter collapsed, the black suit receding but not disappearing entirely—it settled into a sleek, black version of his classic suit, the white spider logo still prominent.
"It... it didn't leave," Peter whispered, his voice trembling. "It's still here. It's part of me now."
Alex walked over, his silver boots clinking on the glass. He knelt beside his friend. "We'll find a way to get it off, Pete. Reed Richards will be back in the morning. He can help."
"No," Peter said, standing up and backing away. He looked at the black-and-white suit with a mixture of horror and obsession. "I need this. To catch the others. To catch the Goblin. I'm not fast enough without it."
Before Alex could say another word, Peter fired a black web and swung out of the broken window, disappearing into the dark Manhattan skyline.
Alex stood alone in the wreckage.
[...Integration: 12.0%...]
[...Observation: Relationship 'Peter Parker' has shifted to 'Variable'...]
"The first shadow," Alex whispered, remembering the Watcher's words.
He looked down at the floor, where a small piece of the Symbiote had been severed during the fight. It was twitching, trying to crawl toward him, drawn to the cosmic glow of his suit.
Alex raised his foot and crushed it, a burst of violet energy incinerating the fragment instantly.
"I'm going to need more than 10% for what's coming," Alex told the System. "Level up the training. I want the next template preview. Now."
[...Processing...]
[...Secondary Template (Silver Surfer) at 12%...]
[...Third Template Preview Unlocked: The Flash (Wally West) - Speed Force Connection...]
Alex's eyes widened behind his mask. "Speed. I need speed."
The 12% mark felt like a threshold. The weight of the Silver Surfer's cosmic density was now being met by a new, frantic thrumming in Alex's molecules. The system had unlocked the Flash (Wally West) template, and though it was sitting at 0.1%, it felt like a spark of lightning dropped into a pool of gasoline.
[...Integration: 12.1% (Silver Surfer)...]
[...New Template: The Flash (Wally West) - Speed Force Fragment Initializing...]
[...Warning: High caloric expenditure detected. Heart rate: 120 BPM (Resting)...]
Alex stood on the ledge of the Baxter Building, his silver armor reflecting the neon lights of Manhattan. He could see the black-webbing trails Peter had left behind. They weren't the graceful arcs of a hero; they were jagged, aggressive, and fast.
"System, if I'm going to catch him, I can't just fly," Alex thought. "I need to match his frequency."
[...Instruction: The Speed Force is an extra-dimensional energy source. To tap into it, you must synchronize your atomic vibration with the 'Speed Force' frequency. Caution: Excessive speed at current integration may cause friction-burns to the Batman Beyond suit...]
"I'll risk it."
Alex stepped off the ledge. Instead of engaging the thrusters, he leaned forward, pushing his mind into that new, buzzing spark in his chest. The world suddenly slowed down. A falling raindrop suspended in mid-air became a crystal sphere. The flashing billboard across the street turned into a slow, rhythmic pulse of light.
One step.
The concrete beneath his feet cracked as he pushed off. He wasn't flying; he was running on the vertical surface of the building. The air around him began to glow with a faint, yellow static, clashing with the violet aura of the Surfer.
He hit the ground in a blur, his silver-plated boots leaving scorched footprints on the asphalt. He moved through traffic like a ghost, the cars appearing as parked statues. He reached the Brooklyn Bridge in three seconds.
[...Integration: 12.5%...]
[...Speed Force Channeling: 0.5%...]
He saw Peter near the top of the bridge's cable. The Black Suit Spider-Man was currently holding a thug—one of the Shocker's associates—by the throat over the edge.
"Where is the warehouse, Mac?!" Peter's voice was a distorted, terrifying growl.
"I don't know! I swear!" the man sobbed.
Peter pulled his fist back, the black suit rippling as it formed jagged spikes over his knuckles. "Wrong answer."
ZZZT.
Alex appeared between them in a crackle of yellow and violet lightning. He grabbed Peter's wrist. The friction from Alex's movement was so intense that the air smelled of ozone and singed carbon fiber.
"Let him go, Peter," Alex said, his voice overlapping with the hum of the Speed Force.
Peter turned his head, his white lenses vibrating. "You're fast now? What is this, Alex? Another 'template'? You're just a collection of powers! I'm the one doing the work!"
"You're about to drop a man to his death!" Alex countered.
Peter shoved the thug back onto the walkway and lunged at Alex. This time, the fight wasn't a brawl; it was a high-speed collision. They moved across the cables of the bridge at speeds the human eye couldn't track. To the commuters below, it looked like a series of explosions was occurring along the bridge's structure.
Alex used the Batman template's tactical foresight to predict Peter's erratic, symbiote-enhanced movements, while his budding speed allowed him to actually intercept them. He struck Peter with a vibration-heavy palm, a technique he'd adapted from the Shocker's blueprint.
The Symbiote shrieked, the black mass rippling away from Peter's chest for a split second.
"You're hurting him!" the Symbiote's voice echoed in Alex's mind.
"I'm saving him!" Alex roared.
He wrapped his arms around Peter and pushed. He tapped into the Speed Force, not to move forward, but to vibrate. He willed his molecules to phase—a trick from the Flash template.
[...Warning: Phasing success rate: 40%...]
For a heartbeat, Alex and Peter became intangible. The Symbiote, which relied on physical bonding, felt the connection slip. It panicked, recoiling into a small, dense ball on Peter's back.
The two of them tumbled onto the roof of a nearby warehouse, the speed-surge dying out and leaving Alex gasping for air. His metabolism was screaming for fuel.
Peter lay on the gravel, the black suit looking dull and exhausted. He pulled his mask off, his face pale and covered in sweat. "What... what did you do to me?"
"I gave you a choice, Pete," Alex said, his silver suit retracting. He felt like he had run a marathon while holding a lead weight. "That suit is a drug. It feels good because it's taking over. If you don't take it off, there won't be a Peter Parker left to be Spider-Man."
Peter looked at his hands. The black suit slowly crawled back over his skin, forming his civilian clothes—a black hoodie and jeans. "I can't. Not yet. There are things coming, Alex. I can feel them through the suit. Something in the water... something in the shadows. The Sinister Six are just the distraction."
Peter stood up, his eyes cold. "I'm going to finish this. My way."
He swung away into the night, leaving Alex alone on the roof.
Alex slipped back into his house through the garage, but as he stepped into the kitchen to grab literally anything to eat, the lights flickered on.
Sarah was standing there, a half-eaten sandwich in one hand and a stopwatch in the other.
"Seven seconds," she said.
"What?" Alex asked, his hand already deep in a box of cereal.
"I saw you through the window. You were at the end of the driveway, and then you were at the back door. It took seven seconds. But the garage door didn't open, and the sensor didn't trip." She walked closer, her eyes narrowed. "And your hair is literally smoking, Alex."
Alex looked in the toaster's reflection. A faint wisp of smoke was rising from his bangs—friction damage.
"I... I was running," Alex said, his voice muffled by a mouthful of dry Cheerios.
"No. You were 'Vanishing'," Sarah corrected. She looked at the box of cereal, then at the three empty protein bars on the counter. "You've eaten more in the last twenty minutes than Dad eats in a week. You're becoming a speedster, aren't you?"
"It's... part of the update," Alex admitted, leaning against the counter. The exhaustion was hitting him like a physical blow. "Sarah, the world is getting complicated. Peter's got a parasitic alien suit, the Watcher is talking to me on the moon, and I'm pretty sure I just broke the sound barrier in a pair of Nikes."
Sarah sat down at the kitchen table, her expression softening. "Alex, you're seventeen. You're supposed to be grounded for coming home late, not for breaking physics. But... if Peter is in trouble, and if this 'shadow' the Watcher mentioned is real..."
She reached into her sketchbook and pulled out a design. It was a stylized version of the Batman Beyond suit, but with sleek, aerodynamic lines and a silver-and-violet color scheme.
"If you're going to be a speedster-bat-surfer," she said, "you need a suit that won't melt when you hit Mach 1. I've been looking at the properties of that crystal you made. It's a natural heat-sink."
Alex looked at the drawing. His sister wasn't just keeping his secret; she was becoming his engineer.
"Thanks, Sarah," Alex said.
"Don't thank me yet. Mom is convinced you have a metabolic disorder. She's scheduled a blood test for Friday."
Alex choked on his cereal. A blood test. If Elena Miller put his blood under a microscope, she wouldn't see human cells; she'd see a glowing, cosmic Speed-Force-infused nightmare.
"I need to fix that," Alex muttered.
[...Integration: 13.0%...]
[...New Goal: Synthesize 'Human-Standard' blood decoy...]
"Get some sleep, Flash," Sarah teased, though her hand was shaking as she closed her sketchbook.
Alex went to his room, but as he closed his eyes, his "Cosmic Awareness" didn't let him rest. He felt it—a vibration coming from the harbor. Something massive was moving under the water. Something that felt like the Vulture's tech, but on a much larger scale.
"The Sinister Six aren't a distraction," Alex realized, the Batman template connecting the dots. "They're a harvest."
The following morning, the kitchen smelled of antiseptic and maternal concern. Elena Miller had the professional posture of a head surgeon as she laid out the collection kit on the granite island.
"It's just a simple draw, Alex," she said, her voice soft but firm. "Your appetite is through the roof, your resting heart rate is irregular, and frankly, you've grown three inches in a month. I need to check your thyroid and glucose levels."
Alex sat on the stool, his mind racing at a thousand miles per hour while his body remained perfectly still. Beside him, Sarah was "accidentally" spilling a large glass of orange juice across the counter, creating the necessary three seconds of chaos.
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Sarah!" Elena turned to grab a roll of paper towels.
In that window, Alex didn't move his arm; he moved his molecules. He tapped into the 13% of the Power Cosmic, reaching into a small vial hidden in his palm—a decoy sample he and Sarah had synthesized using a base of synthetic plasma and diluted bovine proteins, calibrated to mimic "healthy teenager" markers.
Using the Surfer's molecular precision, he swapped the air in the vacuum tube for the decoy fluid just as his mother turned back. When the needle entered his vein, the System dampened his biological output, making his blood appear as a dull, normal red rather than the shimmering, gold-flecked ichor it was becoming.
"There," Elena said, labeling the tube. "I'll drop this off at the lab on my way to the clinic. You're a good sport, Alex."
As she walked out, Alex let out a breath that felt like a localized gale. "That was way too close."
"You owe me a new sketchbook," Sarah whispered, wiping juice off the floor. "And a very large pizza. Your metabolism is making me hungry just looking at you."
Midtown High was a powder keg.
The atmosphere in the hallways was jagged. Peter Parker hadn't just changed his clothes; he had changed his entire "vibe." He was leaning against the lockers, dressed in all black, a pair of expensive sunglasses masking his eyes. When Flash Thompson tried his usual routine of shoving Peter into a locker, Peter didn't stumble.
He didn't even look up. He simply caught Flash's wrist. The sound of bone groaning under pressure echoed through the hall.
"Don't," Peter said, his voice a flat, terrifying monotone.
"Let go, Parker! It was a joke!" Flash yelled, his face turning pale.
Alex stepped between them, his hand resting on Peter's shoulder. He felt the Symbiote beneath the fabric—it felt like a nest of snakes, coiling and hissing at his touch.
"Pete, enough," Alex said.
Peter looked at Alex, and for a second, the white, jagged lenses of the "Black Suit" seemed to flicker over his pupils in the light. He let go of Flash, who scrambled away in genuine terror.
"You're late for Calc, Alex," Peter said, his voice devoid of its usual warmth. "I'm going to the roof. I can't breathe in here. Too much... noise."
"I'm coming with you," Alex said, ignoring the warning bell.
They stood on the school roof, the wind whipping Peter's hair. The city below was a hive of activity, but to Peter, it was clearly a target map.
"The Vulture and Shocker were small time," Peter said, staring toward the East River. "The suit... it's showing me the frequencies, Alex. There's something underneath the harbor. A massive turbine. It's drawing power from the city's main grid, but it's hidden behind a cloaking field."
Alex's "Herald's Sight" pinged. He had felt it too, but he hadn't identified the signature until now. "It's a resonance generator. If they turn it on, it won't just draw power; it'll create a sonic pulse that could level half of Queens."
"Then we stop it," Peter said, his hand rippling as the black suit began to bleed through his shirt. "Tonight. No more 'training,' no more holding back. We end the Sinister Six before they can finish the machine."
"Peter, the suit is pushing you too hard. You're not thinking about the collateral—"
"I'm thinking about results!" Peter snapped, turning on him. "You have the power of a god, and you spend your time faking blood tests! I'm out there actually cleaning the streets!"
Peter leaped off the roof, a black web-line snapping out with a sound like a whip-crack.
[...Integration: 14.5% (Silver Surfer)...]
[...Speed Force Connection: 1.2%...]
[...Warning: Temporal Anomaly Detected...]
That evening, the "Shadow" the Watcher had warned about finally took form.
Alex stood on the pier overlooking the East River. The Batman suit was active, the silver plating shimmering under the moonlight. Beside him, Sarah was on the comms, sitting in the "workshop" beneath the Parker porch, her laptop hooked into the city's sensor grid.
"Alex, the energy spike is off the charts," Sarah's voice crackled. "Something is rising."
The water began to churn. A massive, metallic dome erupted from the waves—a submersible fortress designed by Doc Ock, stabilized by Sandman's grit, and powered by the stolen Stark-tech cells.
Standing on top of the dome were the Six. But they weren't just villains anymore. They were enhanced. Electro was a pillar of pure blue lightning; Rhino was encased in a suit of vibrating, shifting armor; and in the center stood the Green Goblin, his glider now reinforced with the same black, oily substance that Peter was wearing.
"The Symbiote," Alex whispered. "The Goblin has a fragment of it."
"BEHOLD!" the Goblin screamed, his voice amplified by the cosmic-black energy. "THE HARVEST OF THE WEAK!"
"System," Alex commanded, his silver wings snapping open. "Can I take them all?"
[...Probability of victory: 34%...]
[...Suggestion: Utilize the Speed Force to divide and conquer...]
"I need more speed," Alex said. He looked at the 1.2% of the Flash template. He needed a trigger.
He saw Peter—the Black-Suit Spider-Man—swing into the middle of the Six, fueled by a suicidal rage. Peter was being swarmed. Rhino slammed him into the dome's surface while Electro began to cook the air around him.
"PETER!" Alex roared.
He pushed his mind into the lightning. He didn't just vibrate; he exploded.
The world turned to glass. The raindrops frozen in the air. The lightning from Electro was a static, beautiful sculpture. Alex moved.
In the span of a single second, he disarmed the Goblin, punched Rhino forty times in the chest plate, and moved Peter to the safety of a nearby crane.
But as he stopped, the 1.2% of the Flash template flared white-hot. A golden lightning bolt struck him from a clear sky.
[...Integration: 15.0%...]
[...Speed Force Unlocked: Phase 1...]
Alex stood in the center of the battlefield, the silver of his suit now wreathed in flickering, yellow electricity. He wasn't just the Batman or the Surfer anymore. He was the most dangerous variable in the Marvel Universe.
"My turn," Alex said.
The Goblin, recovering from the disorientation of the speed-blitz, stared at the silver-and-gold entity. "What... what are you?!"
"I'm the future," Alex said, his voice echoing with the power of three worlds. "And your time just ran out."