The Bus had parked within the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Inside the mobile base, Fitz was monitoring signals, searching for any sign of Carnage's presence.
"It feels strange. Even though Spider-Man believes Carnage likely came here, there are no symbiotic communication signals at all."
Fitz voiced what he considered to be the most baffling detail, attempting to discuss it with Simmons. "Do you think it's possible Cletus has already fled, or that he never even came here in the first place?"
Simmons thought it over seriously before answering with uncertainty, "Unlikely... after all, this is the most logical deduction. That is, assuming Cletus is indeed a psychopathic killer and not a normal person masquerading as one."
"If he intended to come to Cape Canaveral, what is he planning to do?" Fitz continued to press. "Is it for the rocket launch? And if so, for what purpose?"
"Hey guys, the rocket is about to launch."
Skye ran over, clutching a bag of potato chips. "Do you want to go watch? This is my first time seeing a rocket launch in person."
In truth, it was the first time for Fitz and Simmons as well, but they initially declined the suggestion out of safety concerns. After their refusal, they began chatting with Skye about their confusion to explain their reasoning.
Specifically, the total absence of any symbiote signals.
"It's like a general having absolutely no need for his soldiers; it doesn't make sense. Even if Carnage doesn't need help, wouldn't the infected need to report back to him?"
After listening to them, Skye posed her own counter-question: "But didn't Spider-Man say that Carnage's current underlying logic is that of a hive-mind organism? Does that even require signal transmission?"
"Of course it does. It's arguably more important than ever. It's not like your own cells where every action just..."
As Simmons explained, she seemed to realize something and suddenly reacted. "Just like different cells, he would only need to embed information within the infecting symbiotes to... but can that really be done?"
Simmons wasn't given much time to think, as the situation changed rapidly. With the launch sequence now irreversible and the countdown reaching its final minutes, Carnage appeared.
To be precise, he "oozed" out from the rocket's cockpit—a space where no human was supposed to be—and subsequently covered more than half of the rocket's surface.
"Can we stop the launch?"
By the time the rocket began ignition for liftoff, Coulson finally managed to contact NASA, but the latter gave a negative response. Several employees had been turned into Carnage-infected and were actively preventing NASA staff from stopping the launch. The entire scene instantly spiraled into chaos.
Peter chose to use his high-speed mode to quickly deal with these individuals, only to discover a truly troublesome problem. "No good, the system has been locked down. We can't stop the launch... I'll have to find another way."
Coulson, having asked the NASA engineers if there was any other way to stop the rocket and receiving only a negative answer, sighed helplessly. He prepared to call for SHIELD to launch a wide-area strike to blow Carnage to pieces.
However, Peter suddenly understood exactly what Carnage intended to do. While Coulson was still negotiating with NASA, Peter had already begun to act according to Carnage's silent challenge. Clad in his new suit, Peter rapidly scaled the rocket.
"We can't use heavy firepower to destroy the rocket. That's exactly what Cletus wants. If we destroy it mid-air, there's a high probability Carnage will survive, and his fragments would truly be able to cause hundreds of points of destruction."
Having climbed onto the rocket, Peter explained the situation to Coulson. "This is his plan. Originally, he used the lives of astronauts to threaten me, forcing me to fight him on a rising rocket."
And now, Cletus had changed the stakes. If Peter didn't use Anti-Venom, then Cletus would simply wait to infect more than half of the United States.
"But you're in great danger like this."
"Yeah, but look at it this way—opportunities to fight on a rocket don't come around often. Take care of those infected at NASA for me; I'll be back soon."
On the other side, Cletus, feeling Spider-Man constantly scaling the rocket, let out a delighted laugh. His plan had succeeded. To stop Cletus himself, Spider-Man—the one with Anti-Venom—had to take action.
Perfect!
As a symbiote host aided by Knull, Cletus and Carnage understood Peter better than most of Peter's enemies. Specifically, Knull had told Carnage about Peter's ability to use magic, which was why Cletus needed to create an environment specifically designed to restrict Spider-Man.
Now, it was time for the harvest.
A massive Carnage head "crawled" out from the rocket's cabin, coalescing into a face as it looked at Peter.
"Let's settle this the easy way, Cletus. Tell you what—you surrender now, and I promise the jury will fast-track your death penalty. Then you can get lost."
"Death penalty? I was reborn from the death penalty! So-called death means nothing at all!"
Letting out a roar, Carnage coalesced into a crude humanoid form and lunged at Spider-Man. Peter counter-attacked instantly. Both stood on the outer hull of the rocket; Peter ran upward and leaped, using his webbing to snag Carnage.
"Really? Is that it for the small talk? Talk to me a bit more; I spent quite a bit of effort looking for you."
The symbiote matter that came into contact with Anti-Venom began to collapse, but more and more of the symbiote still attempted to cover the entire rocket. It was clear that Cletus had truly gone mad, frantically splitting the symbiote without any regard for the rocket's stability.
Peter found his opening and threw a punch. After shattering the symbiote on the killer's face, he followed up with another blow to the body, gradually breaking down the symbiote covering him.
Peter was about to deliver some parting threats when his vision suddenly went dark. Before him, Carnage's body—which had been unstable due to the frantic splitting—instantly stabilized, even managing to catch Peter's fist.
Though the symbiote on his hand completely collapsed upon contact, the latter was visibly overjoyed, immediately splitting more of the symbiote to restore itself. Subsequently, Carnage reverted to that monster standing over three meters tall and let out a roar at Spider-Man.
Peter understood the reason for this change perfectly—the King in Black had demonstrated it to him in another universe.
It was indeed Knull helping Carnage.
"Fine. I'm going to beat you and Knull so hard you won't know which way is north."
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