Spider-Man Mayhem

Chapter 324: Chapter 324: Kraven’s War (6)



[Third Person's PoV] 

Gwen looked up just in time to see a formation of hunters soaring through the sky, their bodies outlined against the tall buildings, each one leveling a military-grade energy weapon directly at her.

They didn't pause. In perfect unison, they opened fire. A dazzling barrage of energy beams erupted from their weapons—blazing trails of heat, crackling electricity, and pulsing plasma—each one converging with lethal precision toward Gwen's location atop the telephone pole.

But Gwen didn't move. She simply stood there, calm and composed. Behind her, a luminous blue phoenix aura flared to life, its wings spreading wide with a deafening screech. As she raised her hand, the energy responded to her command like a loyal beast.

The spectral phoenix exploded forward, soaring from her back with majestic speed. It collided with the oncoming assault, not merely shielding her, but stopping the beams mid-flight. Time itself seemed to halt as every single stream of energy froze in the air—trapped, suspended in glowing arcs like deadly ribbons halted in motion.

And it wasn't just the energy. Kraven's men, still airborne and caught mid-attack, suddenly stopped in their tracks. Frost spread across their bodies in sharp, glittering patterns, locking them in place like grotesque ice sculptures. Gwen's mastery over absolute zero extended far beyond mere temperature—it defied the very laws of gravity and momentum. The hunters hung there in the air, completely immobilized.

With a flick of her wrist, Gwen retracted her hand and then brought both palms together in a sharp clap. A deep, resonant shockwave burst from her strike, echoing through the air like a thunderclap. Instantly, the frozen energy beams shattered into shards of brittle ice, scattering like broken glass. The icy prisons around Kraven's men cracked and exploded violently, sending their bodies hurtling backward. They crashed into nearby buildings with bone-jarring force, the impact knocking them senseless.

Gwen leapt down from the telephone pole, flipping gracefully through the air before landing with ease on the asphalt below. She placed her hands on her hips as she surveyed the aftermath. Kraven's soldiers now lay strewn across the pavement, trembling violently, their limbs twitching as frostbite crept across their exposed skin. Their jetpacks sputtered, encased in thin layers of frost, their systems glitching and shorting out.

A few of the more determined soldiers forced themselves upright, gritting their teeth as they staggered toward her with weapons drawn. But as they charged, they realized something was wrong—the ground beneath them shimmered strangely. Though their legs were moving, they weren't making any progress. They were running in place.

Looking down, their eyes widened in horror as they realized Gwen had manipulated the Mirror Dimension. The landscape itself twisted and shifted, trapping them in an endless loop of false movement.

Suddenly, a buggy still functioning roared toward Gwen. A few hunters inside shouted orders, preparing to ram her. Gwen remained unshaken. With a subtle twist of her fingers, she rotated the central axis of the mirrored dimension. The buggy's trajectory instantly altered, veering sharply off-course and slamming sideways into a nearby building.

The hunter's high-tech shielding absorbed the initial impact but quickly shattered into pieces from the force.

Gwen swiped her finger across a panel on her utility belt, flicking several small, disk-like devices into the air. They flew with precision and landed squarely on the hunters' energy weapons. Upon activation, the disks emitted an ear-piercing, high-frequency screech.

The hunters screamed, clutching their heads in agony as they dropped their weapons. The weapons began to melt, the sleek metal dissolving into silver puddles on the floor as the signal disrupted their core components.

Without skipping a beat, Gwen tapped the center of her belt. A hatch opened, and a spider-shaped drone floated out, hovering obediently before her. Gwen exhaled and performed a fluid, practiced motion—her fingers forming an arcane pattern in the air. A glowing magic circle formed in her palm. She hurled it toward the drone.

As the circle passed through the drone, a spell activated, and the machine multiplied into dozens—an entire swarm of spider drones buzzing through the air like angry hornets.

They encircled the remaining hunters with blinding speed, each unit crackling with stored voltage. The drones discharged a synchronized electric surge, sending a blinding cascade of blue lightning across the battlefield.

Kraven's men screamed as the shock tore through them, muscles convulsing violently as they dropped like marionettes with severed strings. Their bodies collapsed in twitching heaps, unconscious and defeated.

One by one, the drones regrouped, fusing back into a single unit before gliding back into Gwen's belt compartment with a soft mechanical whir.

Touching the comm link on her ear, Gwen spoke calmly, "I'm finished on my end. Moving out to assist Spider-Kat."

With a casual wave of her hand, the mirror dimension dissolved, revealing the real world. City life resumed in an instant—cars honking, civilians moving about—though several passersby froze in shock at the sudden appearance of Gwen and the unconscious bodies strewn around her.

Still holding her hand to her ear, Gwen added, "Aria, I'm leaving the clean-up to you. Make sure they're detained."

"Leave it to me," Aria's voice crackled back confidently.

Without hesitation, Gwen opened a glowing portal and stepped through.

On the other side, her feet landed with a crunch on broken concrete. She looked up to see Felicia surrounded by Kraven and a new wave of his men, all cornering her like predators.

Felicia, crouched low on all fours, was growling like a feral beast, her back arched, her fingers curled like claws ready to strike.

Gwen let out a sigh, one part exhaustion and one part resignation. "Why do I suddenly get the feeling this won't be nearly as easy as last time?"

MJ darted across the battlefield in a blur, her form twisting through the air with almost unnatural grace. Multiple glowing eyes blinked across her face—each one shining with a pink color as she tapped into multiple powers simultaneously. Her entire body shimmered with an eerie luminescence.

With a sharp screech, her massive arachnid limbs—sleek, sharp, and metallic—sprouted from her back and slammed into the enemy. She drove them forward, piercing straight through the protective shields of the hunters, tearing through their defenses like wet paper. Sparks flew as she slashed through their high-powered weapons, dismantling them with calculated precision.

She raised her hand with theatrical flair and Just for show, she channeled her illusionary magic. With a mischievous grin, MJ conjured an entire army of miniature spiders—each one glowing with a neon-pink hue, weaving a luminous web made of her psionic energy. 

MJ swung high into the air, flipping gracefully above the chaos as strands of webbing shot from her fingers. With fluid movements, she trapped the screaming hunters mid-flight, encasing them in sticky cocoons. One by one, she tossed them like ragdolls toward the massive psychic spiderweb that loomed behind her, pinning them there like grotesque trophies.

Spotting her next prey, she launched forward with a burst of momentum. She jabbed downward with her spider-leg, shattering a hunter's energy shield in a single blow. The man let out a panicked cry and attempted to shoot her point-blank.

But MJ didn't flinch. Her eyes flared, and with a pulse of energy, she activated her Synaptic Disruption ability. The hunter froze mid-motion, his body locking up as his nervous system short-circuited. MJ calmly webbed him up while he stood paralyzed, then launched him backward into the web tapestry with the others.

A rain of energy bullets hailed down around her in a desperate counterattack, painting streaks of light across the city. MJ spun mid-air, flipping and dodging with fluid elegance, weaving her web lines like ribbons across the skyline. She danced between the chaos, never once getting hit.

With a playful smirk, she activated her illusionary powers again—this time layering them with her Fear Inducement ability. The air shimmered around her as dozens of copies of herself appeared, flying through the air, each one laughing and singing in a distorted, echoing voice.

"Lalala, you can't catch me~!" MJ sang teasingly, her voice bouncing from every direction, her illusions mimicking her movements and tone perfectly.

The terrified hunters spun in circles, unable to distinguish illusion from reality. In their panic, they began to fire wildly at each other, their bullets bouncing off shields and striking allies in a chaotic frenzy. In minutes, what had once been a coordinated attack devolved into a chaotic, self-destructive mess.

Meanwhile, the real MJ sat calmly on the center of her massive psychic web like a queen perched on her throne. A wide grin split her face, both pleased and exhausted as she watched her victims flail about in fear or lay cocooned and defeated.

Despite the confident expression, sweat beaded on her forehead. Her face tensed with concentration as she strained to maintain control over all her constructs, illusions, and psionic webs.

Web-lines launched from her wrist, latching onto fallen hunters across the battlefield. She reeled them in with mechanical efficiency, wrapping them tightly in cocoons and adding them to her growing collection. She even began spawning new constructs of herself—multiplying her presence across the field to increase her speed and efficiency even further.

By the time the last hunter was subdued, MJ collapsed backward onto the sticky surface of the web. She brushed her hair away from her face, sighing dramatically as she massaged her scalp with her fingertips.

"I think I overdid it a bit…" she muttered, wincing, "I'm starting to get a headache."

The battlefield had gone eerily silent. The streets were completely deserted, save for the shattered remains of weapons, broken gadgets, and the twisted remains of high-tech gear. Dozens of hunters now hung like ornaments across the massive web—a haunting and surreal tapestry that reflected MJ's power and creativity.

She sat upright and tapped her communicator. "Aria… I'm done here. You handle the clean-up, yeah?"

"I've got it," Aria responded smoothly.

MJ gave a satisfied nod, then smiled to herself. "In the meantime… let's see how Spider-Kat is doing~"

With a flick of her fingers, she conjured a portal, the swirling vortex humming with unstable pink energy. She leapt through—

—only to land on the pavement and instinctively duck.

Above her, Felicia and Gwen came flying through the air like cannonballs, colliding mid-combat and smashing into the side of a nearby building. The entire structure groaned before crumbling under the force, burying both of them under a mountain of rubble.

MJ blinked, then slowly stood upright, brushing dirt off her suit. "...What did I miss?"

The pile of rubble suddenly exploded, chunks of debris flying in all directions. From within the cloud of dust, Gwen and Felicia erupted—clearly engaged in a brutal, no-holds-barred fight.

Kraven stood at a distance, arms folded, laughing maniacally as he watched the chaos unfold.

MJ stared at the scene in silence, then sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Okay… so clearly I missed a lot."

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