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*****
Drunk and disoriented, Newt found himself wrapped in a cocoon of webbing, hanging upside down from the ceiling.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Muffled cries escaped his sealed mouth. He wriggled his body in sheer terror, especially as he watched a human-shaped spider in a red mask slide down a strand of webbing, landing directly on him as if inspecting a piece of prey.
He felt a sudden, warm sensation spreading between his legs, and his heart felt as though it were being squeezed by an invisible hand.
Just then, another human-shaped spider—this one in black and white—appeared before him. As it stared into his eyes, Newt's gaze filled with a primal, visceral horror.
Don't eat me! Please don't eat me!
"We have some questions for you," Gwen said, her voice dropping into a sinister, icy tone.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
"If you don't talk, I'll let him eat you," Gwen threatened.
Peter, playing along perfectly, reached out and poked Newt's body, as if testing for the best place to take a bite.
"Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!!" Newt thrashed his body wildly.
"I didn't think you'd be such a tough guy. You're still refusing to talk?" Gwen's voice was filled with mock admiration.
"Mmph!"
I'm not tough! I'm soft! I'll break!
"In that case, he really can't wait to start his meal." Gwen gently patted Newt's cheek and said with a hint of regret, "I actually quite like your spirit. How about I give you one last chance?"
"Mmph! Mmph!" Newt, curved like a shrimp in his cocoon, nodded his head frantically.
Seeing this, Peter couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. Gwen really knows how to handle these guys.
He reached out and tore the webbing from Newt's mouth. As if dissatisfied with losing his meal, he let his finger brush past Newt's face and let out a long, hungry sigh.
Newt shuddered, the warmth between his legs intensifying.
Gwen gave Peter a mental thumbs-up. Excellent teamwork.
"Where does the superpower medicine come from?"
Superpower medicine?
The fog of alcohol in Newt's brain cleared instantly. He stared at Gwen, his eyes bulging. "You're here for that stuff? You... you aren't actually going to eat me!"
Gwen sounded surprised. "So you aren't as stupid as you look. Since you're a smart man, you should know what to do next."
"What to do?" Newt shook his head, trying to clear the last of the haze. His eyes darted around as he regained his confidence. "Kill me if you have the guts!"
"Since you've made the request, we—"
"Stop trying to scare me!" Newt cut her off, a smug, ugly sneer forming on his face. "I was a bit out of it earlier and didn't recognize you, but now... Hmph! You're Spider-Man! You're superheroes! Do superheroes kill? Well? Go ahead, kill me if you can!"
As he spoke, he even craned his neck toward them defiantly.
Disgusted by his arrogance, Gwen slammed a fist into his stomach. Peter acted instantly, sealing Newt's mouth with webbing again just as the man's scream was about to erupt.
"Now what?" Peter hopped down and turned to Gwen.
He had dealt with plenty of criminals, but this kind of "sticky candy" type—a bottom-feeder who knew their moral code and exploited it—was something he hadn't quite mastered yet.
Gwen looked at the man's mocking eyes and sneered. "I didn't want to resort to this, but we need to resolve this matter quickly tonight. So..." She leaned in close to Newt. "In a moment, it's going to hurt. A lot."
Newt continued to stare back provocatively. I'm a tough guy! The toughest!
"Look into my eyes."
A voice filled with an irresistible, demonic lure whispered in his ear.
Newt looked instinctively. All he saw were dancing, flickering flames. Suddenly, a wave of unbearable agony crashed over him. It felt as if his very soul were being set on fire.
"Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!"
He screamed in agony, but with his mouth sealed, only pathetic, muffled grunts escaped.
Peter watched Gwen with a hint of concern. He knew about this ability of hers; the Penance Stare was known to incinerate the souls of the guilty.
A few seconds later, the flames in Gwen's eyes vanished. Newt went limp, his eyes glazed and unfocused, his entire body hanging like a sack of wet flour.
But... he wasn't dead?
Peter looked at Gwen in surprise. He remembered that in the past, criminals subjected to that gaze were either finished or... well, sent straight to hell.
"Don't look at me like that," Gwen said, arching an eyebrow. "After all this time, I've learned how to control the intensity."
The Penance Stare she had just used was a heavily diluted version. Because she had spent so much time with the Spirit of Vengeance and possessed a portion of Mephisto's power, her mastery over the Stare was arguably the strongest among any Ghost Rider in history.
Without incinerating the target's soul, her Stare could inflict maximum agony while allowing her to peer into their memories. Whether the bastard spoke or not didn't matter anymore; she already had the information.
"Let's go," Gwen said, glancing at the unconscious Newt. "Take him with us."
"Take him?" Peter frowned. "There are a lot of people outside. Carrying a body out might get us spotted."
"Haha!" Gwen laughed softly. "Have you forgotten I'm Gwen Kent?"
She lightly pressed her communication ring. In the next instant, space itself was torn open, and a shimmering blue portal appeared before them.
Gwen grabbed Newt with one hand, signaled to Peter, and stepped through. They emerged on the Kent Star briefly before Gwen opened another portal, bringing them back to Earth near their command van.
Tossing Newt onto the ground by the van, Gwen opened her communicator. "Everyone, rendezvous at the van. Target captured. We're heading to the next location to deal with his superiors."
She paused, a small frown marring her forehead. "To settle this once and for all and ensure there are no loose ends, we're going to need a little extra help."
"Help?" Peter asked curiously. "Who are you calling?"
"My third brother," Gwen said with a smile. "He's the best person for this kind of job." She added, "I'll call him in when the time is right."
The others agreed. While it was a bit of a shame they couldn't handle it entirely on their own, the prospect of seeing Professor X in action was always something to look forward to.
"Luke and I are on our way back," Harry called out. He hopped onto his glider and sped toward the van with Luke.
Once they arrived and saw the unconscious Newt, Luke asked, "What do we do with him?"
"Easy," Gwen said calmly. She looked toward Robin, who was walking toward them. "Give him to Robin."
Robin, who was rushing over with three bottles of medicine to greet them, froze when she saw Newt lying on the ground. She swallowed hard. "You caught him already?"
That was way too fast.
She handed the superpower medicine she had purchased over to Gwen. Gwen took it casually and pointed to the webbed-up Newt. "Robin, you're just in time. He's your responsibility now."
Before Robin could even process the words, the group piled into the van and roared away.
"Hey! Wait! I—"
Swoosh!
Robin's hand dropped slowly as she watched the van disappear. She looked down at the unconscious Newt and sighed. "How am I supposed to deal with this?"
She stared at the "cocoon" for a moment before deciding to just call the police and let them handle the rest.
Meanwhile, Gwen was driving toward a secluded area while sharing the intel she had just extracted.
"Genesis. The word Robin mentioned earlier isn't a code name; it's a ship."
"That's where Newt got the drugs. His cousin is on the Genesis, acting as an assistant to one of the experimental project managers. That's how Newt got the distribution rights."
"The Genesis is a research vessel. A lot of illegal experiments are being conducted on board. Right now, the ship is anchored in the ocean about thirty nautical miles off the coast of New York Harbor."
Harry's voice turned grim. "So, is that ship our final target?"
"We won't know for sure until we capture the person in charge on that boat," Gwen said. She slammed on the brakes, pressed her ring, and opened another portal. The van drove straight through.
Seconds later, in a deserted corner of the coast, a portal flickered into existence and the van rolled out.
News of Newt's disappearance wouldn't stay secret for long. They had to take down the Genesis—and potentially the mastermind behind the superpower drugs—before word reached them. They had to move fast. This was why Gwen was using the Kent Star's portals.
In just two minutes, they had traveled from the heart of New York to the coastline. The four heroes immediately set out for the target coordinates.
Harry and Luke used the gliders to carry Gwen and Peter. In the night sky, they looked like two bright streaks of flame racing into the deep darkness of the ocean.
After traveling over thirty nautical miles, they found their target in just a few minutes. On the dark expanse of the ocean, a massive cruise ship sat like a leviathan, slowly cutting through the waves.
"Found it," Gwen whispered. She turned to Luke and Harry. "Approach quietly. We're going in stealthily."
"Copy that!" Harry banked his glider, bringing Gwen down in a wide arc toward the surface. They skimmed just above the waves as they closed in on the Genesis.
Once they reached the hull, Gwen and Peter scaled the side of the ship. After confirming the deck was clear, Luke and Harry flipped themselves up as well. Leaving the gliders to hover at a high altitude on standby, the four of them slipped into the bowels of the Genesis.
The ship was eerily quiet—an oppressive, heavy silence that weighed on their chests.
Moving through the dim lighting, the four of them navigated toward the center of the vessel. They encountered security personnel along the way, but the heroes neutralized them silently, knocking them unconscious before they could raise an alarm or even make a sound.
So far, their presence remained a secret.
"Look at this..."
Peter, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped and gestured toward a cabin on their left. Gwen and the others moved up beside him to look.
Through a transparent reinforced wall, they saw a room filled with transparent cages. Several researchers in white lab coats were holding tablets, recording data while observing the "specimens" inside the cages.
The specimens were human beings.
These people had clearly taken the superpower drugs, and their bodies were undergoing violent, horrific reactions. Some had turned into a puddle of sludge, some had sprouted gnarled branches from their skin, and one had become a literal ice sculpture.
Without exception, every one of them was a corpse.
A flame of righteous fury ignited in the hearts of the four heroes as they took in the scene.
Just then, a cold, detached voice rang out through the lab.
"Experiment failed. Clean up the waste. That's enough for today; we continue tomorrow."
Following the voice, the team's eyes landed on the man in charge. He wore a white lab coat and gold-rimmed glasses, looking refined and scholarly at first glance. However, his expression was sinister, and his pale blue eyes flickered with a cold, predatory excitement, like a beast barely restraining its true nature.
As the man finished speaking, the other researchers in the office answered quickly. Once the man left the lab, the researchers let out sighs of relief so loud they were audible even through the soundproofed walls.
Gwen pointed at one of the researchers. "That guy is Newt's cousin. It looks like the one in the gold glasses is the project lead. We might be able to get some real information from him."
"Information or not, right now I just want to punch his lights out!" Luke said coldly.
"Count me in," Harry added, his voice trembling with rage.
Exchanging a quick look, the group followed the path the project lead had taken. After "interrogating" a lone researcher they found along the way to get the lead's room number, they crept toward his quarters.
However, to their surprise, as they approached his room, a cold voice, dripping with suppressed excitement, rang out from behind the door.
"Don't bother hiding. I can already feel your hostility."
Harry's heart skipped a beat, but Gwen remained calm, though she signaled for the team to be on high alert.
"It seems you thought your stealth was perfect. Well then... here I come!"
With a sharp, high-pitched howl, the door was blown into splinters. The man they had seen in the lab stood before them. Gwen and the others braced themselves as the man licked his lips excitedly.
"Little bugs!"
He growled, his body beginning to tremble with extreme agitation.
"Did he take the drug?" Luke whispered.
"Doesn't look like it," Peter replied lowly.
"We've got a lot of hostiles heading this way!" Harry noted, his expression grim.
"Take him down first!" Gwen shouted.
The four of them lunged at the man.
Take me down?
The man laughed as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. He let out a feral howl, his eyes turning blood-red. "Come! Come on!"
As he spoke, a pair of massive tusks erupted from his jaw. His body began to swell as if being pumped with air. Within a single breath, the refined scientist had vanished, replaced by a three-meter-tall monstrous beast with massive fangs, looming over the four heroes.
(End of Chapter)