Marvel’s Spider-Man: Across the Multiverse

But who was Aunt May, after all?

She was the spirited old lady of the 21st century who had silently supported her nephew, Peter Parker, through over a decade of being Spider-Man, repeatedly standing up to villains!

How could she possibly be intimidated by the Prowler?

Without a second thought, she grabbed the baseball bat and swung it at the Prowler once more.

The Prowler frowned and extended his left hand, gripping the bat tightly with the steel claws on his glove. "If you insist on learning the hard way, I don't mind teaching you a lesson!"

With that, he yanked the bat hard.

"Run!" Aunt May held onto the bat with both hands, allowing herself to be pulled toward the Prowler as though she was ready to face death head-on.

This sight struck a chord deep within Miles's heart.

Suddenly, he sprang into action. In a flash, he was in front of the Prowler, clenching his fist and landing a punch squarely on his face.

"Let go!"

The Prowler was sent flying backward, and sure enough, he obediently let go of the bat.

Aunt May fell to the ground.

The Prowler got back to his feet, the voice from earlier tugging at his memory. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he'd heard it before.

He didn't dwell on it for long, instead turning his attention to Miles. "See? That's better. You know my target is you—only you."

Miles didn't reply. He was conflicted, torn between revealing himself to his Uncle Aaron and keeping his secret identity safe.

He helped Aunt May to her feet, glanced at the Prowler, and then made a taunting gesture before crashing through the window to escape.

"Hah!" The Prowler scoffed, quickly following him out through the shattered glass.

The showdown between uncle and nephew, round two, began!

Back at the Main Battleground

"Hey, Liv, seriously, how about we take a break? Aren't you tired?"

"Liv, are those tentacles self-made? How did you make them? I mean, they look amazing—really, just fantastic!"

"Wow, Liv, that last move was impressive! But it didn't really fit your image. I think you could be a bit gentler."

Middle-aged Peter Parker darted around nimbly, taunting Doc Ock with his incessant chatter, drawing her ire and keeping her attacks focused squarely on him.

His relentless trash talk darkened Doc Ock's already stormy expression.

She didn't reply, but her mechanical tentacles became increasingly ferocious, each strike powerful and deadly.

Anything her tentacles struck was instantly destroyed—stone slabs, bricks, greenery. She even grabbed a streetlamp and swung it at Peter.

In truth, Peter wasn't entirely at ease during the skirmish.

The main source of his discomfort? His big belly.

After separating from Mary Jane, Peter fell into a long period of despair. Overeating and a lack of exercise significantly deteriorated his physical fitness, making him noticeably less agile in action.

This left him in precarious situations.

Fortunately, middle-aged Peter Parker's combat experience was incredibly rich.

He was much older than this world's late Ultimate Spider-Man and had been Spider-Man for a solid 22 years.

Throughout his life, he had faced countless enemies, and compared to them, the one before him was merely troublesome at best.

Yet, middle-aged Peter had little desire to engage in a serious fight with Doc Ock.

It wasn't because he was captivated by her charms or anything like that.

Rather, he believed that as a visitor from a parallel universe, it wasn't appropriate for him to interfere too much in this world's affairs.

This wasn't his first encounter with the concept of parallel universe travel, either.

In his younger years, he had visited a universe set in 2099, where he met an obnoxious Spider-Man called "Spider-Man 2099."

Oh, that guy was truly insufferable.

His suit was made from anti-gravity material, allowing him to fly.

Peter's suit didn't allow him to fly!

Not that it mattered. He didn't care about flying.

Spider-Man flying? That just didn't sound right.

Still... he was so jealous.

As Peter thought about it, a metaphorical tear of envy ran down his cheek.

His multiple experiences with parallel universes taught him that unless absolutely necessary, he should minimize his influence on the original universe.

The disruptions caused by interdimensional visitors could, in severe cases, destabilize the host universe, leading to catastrophic consequences.

Thus, Peter's attitude toward Doc Ock was clear: stall as much as possible without engaging in direct combat.

After all, she couldn't really hurt him.

Although their fight appeared intense, the only damage done was to the surrounding ground and buildings. Neither Peter nor Doc Ock had taken any real injuries.

Meanwhile...

Spider-Ham didn't share Peter's deep concerns.

However, his fight with Tombstone clearly revealed his distracted state.

Maybe it was because Tombstone's body was just too tough. Each time Spider-Ham landed a hit, he winced and hopped around as if in pain.

Even so, his movements didn't slow down one bit.

Tombstone was beaten so badly that he was fleeing in panic, utterly helpless and unable to fight back.

Spider-Ham even had the leisure to snack during the fight.

It was unclear where his suit had pockets or how he managed to pull out so much food mid-battle.

The fight between the Spider-Mech Girl and Scorpion seemed evenly matched at first glance.

However, Scorpion was cunning. Realizing he couldn't win in close combat against her strange mech, he kept his distance, relying on the venom stored in his mechanical scorpion tail to attack.

At this stage, Peni was still relatively new as Spider-Mech Girl, still in her learning phase.

For a while, she was struggling to keep up and was being put to the test by Scorpion's tactics.

As Scorpion fought, his eyes darted around shrewdly.

He was debating whether to maintain the status quo or wait for the others to make fools of themselves, allowing him to shine in front of his boss.

The former option seemed safer since he knew the boss's real intentions for sending them here.

Their mission wasn't to defeat these Spider-People but to send a warning: stay out of their business.

The latter option, however, carried certain risks.

Taking a quick glance at the other fights, Scorpion noticed that his teammates were up against formidable opponents, while his own foe seemed hesitant and inexperienced.

He couldn't help but wonder what this round, bulky mech was all about. It even had a girlish voice—what a curiosity.

"Gargan, what are you doing? Finish your opponent and go assist Dr. Octavius!" Scorpion's earpiece crackled with the voice of his boss—Kingpin.

Hearing the displeasure in Kingpin's tone, Scorpion snapped to attention.

"Y-Yes, boss!" he stammered.

With a quick reply, he spat out another venom ball and then abruptly changed targets, launching a sneak attack on the nearby middle-aged Peter Parker.

(End of Chapter)

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